Miss California Sparks Furor With Gay Marriage Comments

On April 20, 2009, someone posted a Fox News article about the 58th Miss USA pageant to a message board.

I responded with this:

I considered starting this topic, but I see it already was made. So Mario Lavandeira gets to be a judge because of his popular gossip blog? If this really is the first time the audience has booed, then it is an interesting justification for not letting her win. My guess is he considers anyone a bigot who wants marriage only between opposite sex partners. If I were to answer the question, part of my response would be that at least the Vermont legislatures followed a rational approach and it wasn't imposed on the state.

On April 24, 2009, Politico had an article about the controversy:

After getting booed by the beauty pageant crowd and berated by one of the contest judges on Sunday, Carrie Prejean is suddenly a conservative sensation, a poster girl for the right who has bloggers, talk show hosts and Republican pols singing her praises.

Blogger Mario Lavandeira uses the pseudonym of Perez Hilton.  As a pageant judge he asked:

Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?

Miss California Carrie Prejean answered this:

Well I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. You know what, in my country, in my family, I think I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that's how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.

Her answer is confusing because in the first part where she mentions "Americans" and "land" it sounds like she is endorsing same-sex marriage and saying that people should choose which type of marriage they participate in.  However, in the second part she says "in my country" and that marriage should remain as one man and one woman.

Here is a poor quality video showing the question and answer:

It sounds like the audience is cheering and clapping.

I think the three states prior to Vermont were: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa.  All three of those were forced to accept it because of a court ruling.  Vermont was the first that approved it through the legislature.

"Donald Trump, who owned most of the Miss Universe Organization at the time and who is now President of the United States, defended Prejean's answer, saying that 'Miss California has done a wonderful job' and that 'It wasn't a bad answer, that was simply her belief.' He then added that the question was 'a bit unlucky' and that no matter which way she answered the question 'she was going to get killed.' He later stated: 'It's the same answer that the president of the United States gave. She gave an honorable answer. She gave an answer from her heart.'"

Kristen Dalton from North Carolina was the winner, but Carrie Prejean was the 1st runner-up.

In 2009 Prejean wrote a memoir Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks.

In 2010 she married former NFL quarterback Kyle Boller in San Diego and took his surname.  They have two children.