by Walter Brasch
There's a cat fight going on in the Miss USA operationà ‚¬"and it isn't pretty.
It began when an openly gay judge asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean, what she thought about same sex marriage. Prejean, a student at San Diego Christian College, said that although she recognizes and accepts that others may believe in same-sex marriage, "I think I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman." That created a firestorm of publicity for the Trump-owned organization. A large minority of Americans said they supported Prejean's opinion. A large minority said she was reciting biased lessons of intolerance; Perez Hilton, the judge who had asked the question, on his blog called Prejean "a dumb b*tch." However, several prominent gay rights activists defended Prejean's right to her opinion.
Pageant officials had ordered all of its contestants not to mention God on their applications or at any public event. Apparently, openly believing in God could be seen as detrimental to an organization which holds its beauty contest in Las Vegas, also known as Sin City, USA. Prejean's view about gay marriage, she later said, was based upon her religious beliefs.
Prejean was second in the Miss USA contest itself; her views may have cost her the national crown.
The Miss California organization claimed that since the pageant in April, Prejean missed scheduled events and lied about pre-pageant semi-nude pictures of her, all of which showed her back and only a portion of a breast. A month after Donald Trump had strongly defended Prejean and her right of free speech, he approved the pageant stripping her crown. Prejean, who said the Pageant's action was retaliation against her views, sued for libel.
In October, the Miss California organization countersued, claiming Prejean owes it $5,200 for what it claims is a loan it made so she could get breast augmentation. In its countersuit, the organizers and officials claimed Prejean "attempts to cast herself as a virtuous young woman and the victim in a supposed conspiracy against her." The suit also accused her of having a "new-found notoriety [and] an inflated sense of self." This, of course, is the organization headed by a man who beneath a blonde pompadour enjoys firing reality shows contestants. This is also an organization whose backstage manipulations could make Chicago politics or New York's Tammany Hall organization appear to be little more than grade school cliques.
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