I’m all for gay marriage and I love me some Perez Hilton, but I have to take exception with the “gossip gangstar”s’ vitriol during the whole Miss California gay marriage answer brouhaha.
During Sunday night’s Miss USA competition, the very “out” celebrity gossip blogger, a.k.a. Mario Lavandeira, asked finalist Miss California, Carrie Prejean, whether or not she felt other states should follow Vermont’s lead in legalizing same-sex marriage (the first state to do so through legislative action.)
“Do you think every state should follow suit,” he asked. “Why or why not?”
Miss California responded in part that she, in fact, did not believe in same-sex marriage, stating, “You know what, in my country, and in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman – no offense to anybody out there.”
So it wasn’t the most graceful answer ever, and perhaps a bit too honest, too much personal opinion, for the scripted I-just-want-to-solve-world-hunger pageant circuit, but that’s what the gal believes. And Hilton did ask her “why” or “why not” leaving open room for discord. But what was he expecting? An in-depth pro vs. con discourse on state’s rights? (Apparently, yes. ) It is this less than diplomatic formulation of an answer that Hilton says cost Prejean the crown, telling CBS’ The Early Show that, “There are various other ways she could have answered that question and still stayed true to herself without alienating millions of people.”
The issue with me isn’t so much speculation that Miss Prejean lost because of the content of her answer — pageant judging is, after all, subjective — but that Hilton has taken into tearing this gal apart, calling her stupid and breaking out a number of unpleasant female-unfriendly pejorative terms to describe her. By using such terms, Hilton comes across as offensive and sexist and is less likely to persuade anybody of the righteousness of his position.
So she’s not enlightened about gay marriage; educate her instead of lambasting her. Intolerance is a poor argument for tolerance. Or simply dock her points so that she learns what kind of example the judges want Miss USA to set. But don’t set about using sexist language when you are trying to push a civil rights agenda.

Some outlets are calling Perez Hilton the winner (EntertainmentWeekly.com), but I’m going to give the crown to Miss California who managed to handle herself with class this morning when MSNBC’s Tamryn Hall asked her to respond to being called the “c” word by the blogger. Sure, she responded with the old “I’ll pray for him” chestnut, but at least she handled herself with pageant-perfect decorum.