Miss USA Pagent and its aftermath!!

A Beauty Queen Blows It: Inside the Miss USA Gay Marriage Scandal

Submitted by Seth Hedstrom on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 17:11.

As far as atmospheres go, this one probably couldn’t have gotten any gayer.

A statuesque beauty queen standing onstage at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas strip, her meticulous hair and makeup shining in the spotlight after being attended to moments earlier by an army of hairstylists and makeup artists. A sequined gown- most likely been designed by a gay clothing designer- elegantly wrapped around her taut physique. And a decidedly liberal panel of judges, including a Playboy bunny and an openly gay gossip columnist.

So in the question-and-answer session of last night’s Miss USA telecast, when Miss California Carrie Prejean was asked (by a gay man, mind you) whether or not she thought the rest of America should follow Vermont in allowing same-sex marriages, how on Earth could she have blown her answer so bad?

Here’s her word-for-inexplicable-word answer: "I think it's great Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what in my country, in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be, between a man and a woman."

In the auditorium, the reaction was as instant as it was divided. Some cheered, others booed, and the gossip columnist who’d asked the question stared at Prejean with a glint of disgust in his eyes that even the most delicately-applied layer of mascara couldn't conceal. Mayhem erupted in the venue lobby after the telecast ended, a clip of the exchange was plastered across the internet within hours of it taking place, and media discussion of the incident has been building ever since. However, this ‘controversy’ has less to do with the growing schism between those who favor same sex legislation and those who oppose it than with the complete lack of tact and discretion displayed by a pea-brained pageant queen.

Let me explain.

As stated before, the beauty pageant industry is one of the most gay-and-lesbian friendly in the entertainment business. Whether or not Prejean supported gay marriage was inconsequential- she should’ve known her audience more intuitively and provided an answer that pleased both sides rather than completely alienating an entire segment of America’s populace, not to mention a good portion of the auditorium she was standing in. And although the debate over gay marriage is still going strong- the video of the incident has already garnered millions of hits online- Prejean would’ve fared better taking the high road as a casual observer than by jumping into the fight and picking sides. After all, high heels and battlefields are never a good mixture.

In the end, the real winner in this mess will be the Miss USA organization itself. Plagued by copycat reality shows and waning interest, the telecast’s ratings have been steadily decreasing for decades, and any mention of the pageant in the national press- scandal-related or not- is a welcome shot of adrenaline to the dying institution. In today’s celebrity-crazed, scandal-obsessed, tabloid-infested media, any publicity is good publicity- even the most vapid beauty queen could attest to that.