Miss California Carrie Prejean Keeps Crown; Perez Hilton: Loser

 

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Today, Donald Trump of the Trump Corporation and the owner of the Miss Universe Pageant system (which includes Miss California) briskly walked into a press conference held in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City and announced that Miss California, Carrie Prejean was keeping her crown. Prejean came under fire by uber blogger Perez Hilton for answering his question of her stand on Gay Marriage when she responded - after making it clear she didn't mean to offend anyone - that marriage is between a man and a woman.

That statement sparked Hilton to use his blog and videos to attack Prejean, calling her some really bad names. Here's the video that started it all (warning, language):



Other bloggers took up his voice and within two days after the comment the Internet was abuzz with abusive posts about the beauty queen. Then Prejean was sought out by, and did not refuse to work with, conservative groups working against the passage of Gay Marriage. Then and suddenly file after photo file of a topless Prejean was leaked to the Internet on TheDirty.com and a new charge, that of violation of her contract where she stated she never posed nude, took center stage. Finally, the directors of the Miss California pageant held a firebrand news conference Monday denoucing Prejean, but forgetting that the entire organization was owned by the one person who had final say: Donald Trump.

Carrie Prejean in her own words, in full:

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As "trite" as this entire affair may be to some, it's vitally important in the course of American Culture. Why? Because the issue ignited anti-Gay Marriage activists simply due to the way Prejean was treated by activists, led by Perez Hilton. His behavior - amplified by the Internet - may have set back the progress of change in state laws to allow Gay Marriage by two election periods.

At this point, the song "Money changes everything" comes to my mind, but back to the subject. Trump said the photos were acceptable. Moreover, Trump got the Miss California directors Kevin Smith and Shanna Moakler to come to an agreement with Prejean, who agreed to carry out her duties.

I just hope that Shanna Moakler and Kevin Smith will restore Prejean's photo to the Miss California website. She's no where to be seen as of this writing, anywhere on the site. I guess they expected Trump to remove Prejean. Didn't happen.

For heteros who back Gay Marriage like myself, this episode was a watershed moment in sparking a conversation we as a country need to have. For me, this matter is one of a civil right for a person to marry and man or a woman at any point in their lives. The uncharted conversation is that some women and men move in and out of Gay or Lesbian status and I've been personally impacted by this. As I've stated before, I've had girlfriends who at first said they were Lesbian then slept with me, then married a man. So what, is my response. But it's not the central conversation; it should be.

I think the problem is in order to make the case for "equal rights" Gay activists long ago made the case that being Gay was a genetic presdispostion then compared it to being "of color", which set off the political problems we see today. The fact is people chose to behave a certain way based on who they fall in love with regardless of the sex of the person. Some of us, like myself and Prejean, are used to male-female parings, but where we differ is I don't believe everyone has to live as I do. That written, the real question is "Does a person have the right to marry whom they want to male or female?"

I think the answer's "yes" but Perez Hilton's keeping us from getting to "yes" in the future. Today, he called Prejean "ignorant" and "a stupid woman" on HLN, upsetting the hosts of the show. (And even many of the comments on his own blog are against him.)

His childish behavior is "his thing" as Trump said today. All of us in the media commentary business have "our thing" and regardless of how you feel about it, it draws eyeballs, especially for Hilton. So he's empowered but this time he made a mistake he will not personally feel but will observe politically as time marches on. My prayer for the future is that activists on both sides don't take up arms and attack the other person. I hope Hilton leads the charge in calming the waters, but I doubt it.

Miss California | Trump Will Let Carrie Prejean Keep Crown

 

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This is just my prediction but Donald Trump will let Carrie Prejean keep her Miss California crown, upsetting Perez Hilton and much of Hollywood in the process. They will yell, kick and scream but for Trump it's about regaining control of the message: it's my pageant not yours. And he will effectively say this to the representatives of Miss California, the very ones who on Monday held a press conference that was more activist bickering rant than an event, but I suppose that's an event too.



The Miss California Press Conference

It's not that I disagree with the message of diversity the spokespersons were attempting to communicate, it's just that they staged the event knowing full well Trump could pull the rug out from under them on Tuesday. After all, as they said, it's his call.

Plus all of this isn't over Prejean's so-called nude photos or her contract that she signed stating she didn't pose nude, it's her comment on (drum roll, please) Gay Marriage. Now, if she said "marriage is between a White man and a White woman," I'd have said "Well, I'll give her three years before some brother turns her out." But let's think that through for a moment. Given the number of interracial marriages and famous couples, like Heidi and Seal, Prejean would not have a single group to turn to other than the KKK, and that would bounce her in a second.

And that's the point. Anyone can marry anyone, really. It doesn't have to be state sanctioned but it certainly makes life easier when it is. The point is Prejean is being demonized for stating she likes men and traditional sexual parings - it's an issue of "preferred plumbing" which Prejean confuses with civil rights. Ok. That's it, really. What Prejean will do to keep her crown is grow up and apologize and promise to uphold the ideals and values of Miss California. In other words, she'll eat crow and like it.

As for Trump, he's got to regain the message and save Miss California. He's already said Prejean was "unlucky" and would get "hit regardless of what she said" and that's true. Prejean has been called every name in the book and some blogs have made up stoies that are not true (like the one where she was spotted topless with Michael Phelps). Trump's also said she's a "seriously good looking woman" which anyone can see.

Plus, and I forgot to make this point in the video, Trump's a Republican and you've got to believe he's going to back a young lovely firebrand of a woman (regardless of color) unafraid to share her conservative values but he's going to do it in a way that eases the pain others have felt at a moment in time when we can see a new round of real social change before us such that true civil rights are protected.

Prejean must present herself as respectful of those rights, period. I think with Trump she will. Moreover, if she's a true Christian, she'll express that she was wrong and that she loves people, period.

(OK. So what if I'm wrong? I just can't see it. But if I am, it's only because she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer; eventually the conservative spokesperson dollars will dry up and she'll have door after door closed to her later in life as the country changes. But I can't see her being that stupid that either. We shall see.)

Miss California Nude Photo Scandal Due To Conservative Views

 

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In a short time, Miss California, Carrie Prejean has made herself into a household name first by "outing herself" stating that she believed marriage was between a man and a woman, then by going out and talking about it, then posing with Michael Phelps. But now and I think because of her views, Miss California is going to have her crown taken away.

The cover for this is the discovery of a semi-nude photo of her posing for a lingerie company when she was 17 years old. Personally, my 74-year-old Mom doesn't care about the issue, so why should I? My feeling is yes, she did reportedly sign a disclosure agreement and claimed she didn't do what she was found to have done, but the way all of this came about seems to be based on her views and not on the action itself. Take the way "The Dirty" reported their discovery of the nude photos, using terms like "self proclaimed bible thumper", etc. The point is there's a concerted effort to discredit Prejean because of her conservative views.

I frankly think that's terrible and I'm liberal. But I'm totally tired of these attempts to make someone who has a different point of view "the other" and a bad person. It has to stop. If Carrie wants to make her pointof view known here, why not. I do have concerns with the issue of discriminating against one's civil rights however and I think Prejean should think about what she's doing, but she has the right to say it.

What about the moral issue of the lie about the photos? Look, yes, she lied, but I don't think she should lose her crown over it. She won. OK. I have an issue with her not telling the truth, but it happens in the context of this effort to demonize her so I just can't embrace the view that she should be de-throwned.

Sorry, I can't. Not under the circumstances.