http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=90345
The dust has yet to settle following Miss USA judge Perez Hilton’s question about marriage equality to first runner-up Miss California, Carrie Prejean, who answered that in her personal opinion marriage rights ought to be preserved exclusively for heterosexual couples.
Though that opinion is shared by many, Hilton recorded a video post after the contest’s April 19 broadcast in which he excoriated Prejean for her answer, calling her a “dumb bitch.”
Hilton had posed his question as follows: “Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?”
Prejean answered by saying that due to her background, she personally believed that marriage rights should be limited to a couples of mixed gender. “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite,” she noted. “And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.
“No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.”
Prejean later voiced the belief that her answer was a deciding factor in her not having won the beauty contest.
The brouhaha has crystallized questions and concerns on both sides of the marriage equality issue, including soul searching from members of the GLBT community as to whether unequivocal assertion of gay and lesbian families to marriage equality rights might have strayed into territory marked by unnecessarily mean-spirited attacks, as well as a reevaluation of what role minor–some would say manufactured–celebrities such as Miss USA should play in the culture.