Her Opinion Was Not The Problem

They throw the Washington Post in my driveway every morning. I look it over before I head out to work, and sometimes I sit down and read some of the Metro section. These days I actually get my news from the Internet, just like you. If a story piques my interest I can follow the links to find other versions of it, if I want to I can figure out pretty clearly what actually happened. But if I relied on The Post or some other newspaper, I'd have to accept what they tell me, and it simply doesn't meet a standard.

Like this, from Wednesday's paper:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An emotional Miss California Carrie Prejean kept her crown on Tuesday, and the beauty queen stood by her opposition to gay marriage and defended posing for topless photos.

Prejean, 21, made headlines last month at the Miss USA pageant when she expressed her opinion on gay marriage and claimed her answer cost her the Miss USA crown.

After the pageant, she met with the National Organization for Marriage and spoke at an event for the group which opposes same-sex marriage. Topless photos emerged of her and it was revealed the beauty pageant helped pay for her breast implants.

Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump praised Prejean for her beauty and standing by her opinion, and he judged the topless photos as acceptable for her to continue her reign. "If her beauty wasn't so great no one really would have cared," he said. Miss California keeps her crown, and her opinions

I'm not sure where to start here.

First of all, "expressing her opinion." She was asked what she thought about gay marriage, and she gave an incoherent and ignorant response. She believes in "opposite marriage," she said. It doesn't matter whether she's for it or against it, her answer was bad.

Now, this blonde will tell anyone who will listen that she believes in her First Amendment right to express an opinion. Apparently nobody has explained to her that the First Amendment prevents the government from interfering with her self-expression. It does not mean that she can say any stupid thing and we all have to take it seriously.

In fact, this is weird. A beauty pageant asks the beauties to answer a question. Does it matter what they say? I mean, really. Are they only judged for remaining beautiful while they speak, or does it help if they are, say, educated or intelligent? Does it matter if they are narrow-minded bigots, or are they only judged on poise?

Here's what she said:

"Well I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. You know what, in my country, in my family, I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman."

She can barely put a sentence together. Even if there was such a thing as "opposite marriage" you can't "choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage," it doesn't make any sense. Who would do that? I don't know if I want to marry Bruce or Susie, wha? And in most states, you can't "choose same-sex marriage," she doesn't "live in a land" that offers the choice.

If she had said clearly that she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, I don't think anybody would have cared. She was losing the competition anyway. But this answer lives up to the promise of every blonde joke ever. Opposite marriage!

She lost, and she claimed she lost because she was a Christian, and the situation deteriorated from there. She joined up with a rightwing hate group and went around giving speeches saying marriage should be limited to certain couples. It turned out the pageant had bought her breast implants. Topless pictures circulated around the Internet, where she had signed a statement saying that no such thing existed. She was on the brink of losing her title as Miss California.

This Post story, and Donald Trump, seem to think that the reason she would lose her crown was because she had expressed an unpopular opinion. She said she's against gay marriage, and so The Gays ganged up and in their conspiratorial way (because they've infiltrated the beauty pageants, you know) and arranged for her to be humiliated because of her religion.

No, as has been pointed out, even President Obama does not believe same-sex couples should marry. It's not an unpopular sentiment, lots of people, even gay people, feel that way. Nobody is surprised if a beauty queen has a conservative opinion.

It is criminal of The Post to pretend that that is the issue. People might debate whether her opinion is appropriate for someone who will represent our country in international competitions, maybe this is an acceptable opinion and maybe it's not, all in all it seems to me pretty defensible. I don't agree with her, but if she thinks marriage is an opposite thing, it's fine with me.

Her answer was dumb, that's all, and her behavior after she lost was reprehensible. This part of the pageant gives a young lady the opportunity to show her eloquence, her clarity of thought, her poise under pressure, and this was not it. She fell apart, she didn't make sense, she sounded like an idiot. And then she threw the blame around for her loss, as if she lost because she had exercised her First Amendment rights. No, honey, the other girl was prettier.

The Post should know better than to pick up the rightwing talking points on this. Did Prejean lose the pageant because she is opposed to marriage for some Americans? No, of course not. Should she lose her title for being a liar and a fake and representing hatred? Ah, there you might have a case.