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Miss California Carrie Prejean listens to a question at the Rock Church during services in San Diego Sunday, April, 26, 2009. Prejean has drawn attention for her comments against gay marriage at the Miss USA pageant, where she was first runner-up last weekend.   CREDIT: The Associated Press: Denis Poroy
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Is Miss California the new face of anti-gay ignorance?
Getting personal with the beauty queen at church
Published Thursday, 30-Apr-2009 in issue 1114
Carrie Prejean, Miss California, became the lightning rod of the Miss USA pageant when she told a judge same-sex couples shouldn’t marry.
The 21-year-old Prejean has been a member of the San Diego megachurch The Rock for four years. The evangelical Christian congregation was founded by former San Diego Chargers defensive back Miles McPherson and was active in the campaign to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in California last year.
Prejean, a student at San Diego Christian College, has spent the last week defending her comments.
Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who posed the question, stoked the controversy when he suggested her response may have cost Prejean the Miss USA crown.
Miss California said more on the subject when she sat down at the church with reporter Rex Wockner on Sunday, April 26.
Gay & Lesbian Times: Clearly, nobody would ever stand up at the Miss USA pageant and say, “I don’t think black people should be able to marry white people.” People are wondering if maybe we’ve gotten to a moment in American culture where a person can’t really say something without it being interpreted as anti-gay any more. What do you think happened in Vegas that led to all the media hype?
Carrie Prejean: I think the key thing is tolerance, and I think Perez Hilton had, obviously, a hidden agenda, because of the reaction immediately after the pageant. He didn’t agree with what I said; therefore, he wanted to go out there and bash me and say things that were very hurtful. So, I think that this wouldn’t be happening right now had he not done that. So, it would have just been me saying my own opinions, which I’m entitled to, just as you are, and I think it would have been over with. But the fact that he went out there and attacked me, you know, verbally, that’s why this is all happening right now.
GLT: So, you think you simply expressed your opinion that marriage is between a man and a woman, which 52 percent of the voters in California agree with you on?
Carrie Prejean: Right, I’m representing not only the state of California but the majority of people in our nation.
GLT: So, do you think the reason it became such a big news story is because he called you a bitch?
CP: Um, I think that because of his expression and his verbal attack on me immediately after the pageant – I mean, he didn’t even wait one day to do this attack – so I do think there was a hidden agenda there.
GLT: On his blog, Hilton says that he wants to have coffee with you. Is that something you would do?
CP: Um, I’m not sure if I would have coffee with him. If I did, I’d bring [the Rock Church Pastor] Miles [McPherson] with me.
GLT: If you had it to do all over again, would you do anything differently at the microphone at the pageant?
CP: No, I wouldn’t do anything different. I think that I was entitled to my own opinion. He asked me, you know, how I feel about a certain subject, and I gave him my honest opinion. So, no, I have no regrets.
GLT: Do you think same-sex marriage is just a matter of time, that clearly society is evolving in that direction, and that we’re going to look back on these days as the way we look back on days when white and black people couldn’t get married to each other, or do you think it’s going to be a very long fight to try to get Americans to accept that?
CP: I definitely think it’s going to be a very long fight. As you can see in California, you know, we had already ruled that, you know, with Proposition 8, that was already discussed that marriage is between a man and a woman. We voted on it. Um, so, I think that it maybe will be a matter of time, but I don’t see that coming anytime soon.
GLT: What would be so wrong with two women who love each other getting married?
CP: What would be so wrong with two women that love each other?
GLT: What would be so wrong with that? Yeah.
Carrie: What don’t you see wrong with that?
GLT: I don’t see anything wrong with it.
CP: Why?
GLT: Uh, why don’t – oh, this is fun – why don’t I see anything wrong with it? Uh, because they’re in love with each other, and they want to spend their lives together, and marriage is kind of the way that our society recognizes that two people love each other and want to spend their lives together and make commitment and be financially intertwined and be faithful and, you know, permanent. So, why should that be something that gay people can’t do? There are gay people all around us all the time.
CP: Exactly, and this is nothing against gay people. I have a lot of friends that are gay. This is not a verbal attack on gay people. It’s just a matter of opinion, and the way that I was raised, the way that I was brought up, that was not an option. I knew I was going to marry a man growing up. And so, for me, it’s a biblical thing, it’s something that I was raised believing, um, that a marriage, you know, is between a man and a woman. Barack Obama even supports that. The majority of the people in our nation support that. The secretary of state supports that. So, I don’t see anything wrong with it.
GLT: It’s hard to argue with. I mean, you’re right that 52 percent of California voters…
CP: Because Barack Obama doesn’t agree with you, does that make him a bad president?
GLT: Uh, no, I kind of like Barack Obama as a president, actually.
CP: I do, too.
GLT: You were raised to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and you grew up knowing that you were always going to marry a guy, but you’re heterosexual. Some people are born gay, maybe, you think?
CP: No, I don’t think so.
GLT: OK, so now we’re getting somewhere.
CP: I think it’s a behavior that develops over time.
GLT: Why would someone choose to be gay, given that if you choose that, you get discriminated against?
CP: Um, because obviously Perez Hilton doesn’t think that there’s anything wrong with it.
GLT: No, but if being gay is a choice, rather than something you’re born with, why would you choose something that’s going to lead to your being discriminated against? What would be the motivation?
CP: I’m not sure what the motivation would be.
GLT: OK. Me either.
Handler: I’m sorry, Rex, we’ve got to move on to channel 7.
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