SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Miss California Carrie Prejean, who became the bombshell of the Miss USA pageant by saying same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry, said Sunday that her state sponsors urged her to apologize afterward but she rejected the advice.

Prejean, 21, said officials from the Miss California USA pageant were worried that her comments would cost their contest financial backing and tried to prepare her for a string of post-pageant media interviews by discouraging her from discussing her religious beliefs.

Prejean claimed producers of the state pageant told her to apologize to the gay community and to avoid mentioning religion when she appeared on the “Today” show.

Miss USA pageant public relations representative Roger Neal on Monday called those claims lies. Neal says he was one of the people who attempted to advise Prejean. According to him, Prejean was urged to reiterate she didn’t mean to offend anyone, and to use the national spotlight “to heal some wounds.”

Rashad Robinson, media programs director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said Prejean’s honesty would have been admirable if, in frankly expressing her opinion, she hadn’t misspoken.

“Contrary to Miss California’s claim, people can’t choose, gay and lesbian couples don’t have a choice except in a handful of states,” Robinson said. “In her extensive public platform since then, she hasn’t clarified that, she hasn’t walked back from what are clearly misstatements.”

Because the contestant’s scores are supposed to be kept secret, it may never be known whether Prejean would have won had she not drawn Hilton’s question. Trump has said one part of the pageant would not have decided the outcome. Other pageant veterans, however, say that based on her standing as first runner-up, low scores from one judge would have been enough to cost Prejean the title.

Besides Hilton, at least two more of the pageant’s dozen judges have said Prejean should have given a more politic, if not politically correct, answer to avoid offending anyone, and that it was her lack of tact, not her opposition to same-sex marriage, that ruffled feathers.

“I do not fault her for her beliefs. I fault her for her complete lack of social grace, and that’s a quality I want my Miss USA to possess,” judge Alicia Jacobs, a former Miss Nevada, wrote on her blog.

Others, though, have applauded Prejean for her forthrightness. The other four finalists were asked whether they would speak out against domestic violence, favor using taxpayer money to bail out corporations, give immigrants access to health care and help fund elections in Afghanistan.

“A question like that is not relevant in a platform such as the Miss USA pageant. It’s far too political and it’s divisive as well,” said Kenya Moore, the 1993 Miss USA who was one of the judges that named Prejean Miss California in November. “Half of the audience is going to agree and half is not, no matter what she said. It’s a no-win situation.”

As for Prejean, there is still the possibility she could go on to become Miss USA if winner Kristen Dalton wins the Miss Universe pageant this summer. Meanwhile, she plans to continue making the public appearances that come with her Miss California USA duties.