Miss California: My Anti-Gay Marriage Answer "Cost Me My Crown"
Monday April 20, 2009
Miss California Carrie Prejean says she believes her anti-same sex marriage stance hurt her chances of winning Sunday's Miss USA competition.
At the Las Vegas pageant, Prejean, 21, was asked by judge Perez Hilton how she felt about legalizing gay marriage. "In my country, and in my family, I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman," she replied. She later lost out to Miss North Carolina, Kristen Dalton.
"It did cost me my crown," Prejean said of her response on Monday's Billy Bush Show. "I wouldn't have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that's all I can do."
"It is a very touchy subject and [Hilton] is a homosexual and I see where he was coming from and I see the audience would've wanted me to be more politically correct," she added. "But I was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything."
In an interesting twist, Prejean revealed that her sister supports same sex marriage.
"My sister is a second lieutenant in the Air Force and she is a gay rights activist," she said of her sib, who is not gay. "She supports gay people, she supports gay marriage. My beliefs have nothing to do with my sister or my mom, or whatever."
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Her sister wasn't offended by her remarks at the pageant.
"She was just in my hotel room and she said, 'Sis, I'm not offended by anything that you said. We have two different opinions and I love you because of it. I love you because you stood up for what was right, and it's not a matter of being gay or not gay, it's a matter of you competing for Miss USA and getting a question and answering it to the best of your ability,''" she said.
Added Prejean, "That's what's so great about being an American - we're able to have our own opinions."
Despite all the controversy, "I feel like I won. I feel like I'm the winner. I really do," Prejean said, adding that she had 1,000 messages on Facebook and 2,000 friend requests.
Asked about rumors that she is dating Michael Phelps, she said, "He is a great man. Wouldn't you like to know, Billy Bush? We can talk about that a different day."
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