photo credit: examiner.com

I’m sure most of you have heard about the news earlier this week surrounding Miss California Carrie Prejean, whose title was in danger of being taken away.  Although it mostly seems to be about her answer to a question about same-sex marriage in the Miss USA pageant, it appears that she also shirked some of her responsibilities.  Now being that I just posted my thoughts on the New York bill, my opinion is clear and I support equality for same-sex couples.  Obviously, I don’t agree with what she said, but I think Trump made a solid decision in allowing her to keep her crown (assuming she now shows up to the engagements she’s supposed to be going to).

First of all, she answered the question respectfully and gracefully (or at least as best she could), starting off saying how she thinks it’s great that we live in a country that allows a choice.  This signals to me that though she may not agree with the idea, she is still ok with others feeling that way and choosing to live they way they want.  Her only reference to why she believes that is because that was how she was raised (any guess on what that means?  Religion, anyone?).  So I give her credit for not saying anything about how the Bible or God taught her it was wrong (of course I’m assuming here that her opinion was from a religious upbringing).

It was, admittedly, a tough and extremely charged question.  Nobody could have walked away from that without disapproving stares from someone.  So to a certain extent, she was set up for failure.  And from what I saw, she handled it well, not afraid to stand up for her opinion, but also very careful in how she talked about it.  Granted, some choice of words were odd, but that’s expected under pressure like that, plus beauty pageants tend to be known for the… interesting vocabulary and grammar that their contestants use.  So all in all, I don’t blame her for how she handled the situation.

I think it was important for her to keep her role to show people that you will not be persecuted for your beliefs and can be treated fairly for expressing your honest opinion.  Yes, maybe she won’t be a great role model for those looking to accept same-sex relationships, but she will be a role model for standing her ground without disrespecting the other side.  We are a country built on freedom of speech and expression, so that is important to maintain.  However, we are also a country supposedly built on freedom and equality – where is that?  But that’s beyond the scope of this situation and is a much larger beast to tackle.  Everyone who looks up to Miss California can rest assured that she was not thrown out for her opinions, or else they may feel that they need to hide their true selves to fit into this world.

But, I don’t agree with her position and I hope that she’ll open her mind to why she was so strongly spoken against due to this issue.  It’s not a small thing to be brushed aside and as a public figure, she will have her run-ins with it.  Change does not come easily, but I hope that she’ll discover how unfair this whole situation is.  Unfortunately, this is a very heated issue, so any mention of it can result in things getting blown out of proportion.  Not that I feel the issue is not important, but, in the end, everyone is still entitled to their opinion and the only thing you can try to do is change that.  So I think rather than publicly berating her, LGBT organizations should try to arrange some meetings with her to discuss the issues.  Keep it calm and civil and you just may get somewhere.