Perez Hilton Punk'd Miss California

I always thought that beautiful people in America could do and say whatever they wanted without much scrutiny. Times have changed, perhaps. At any rate, everyone shut up, seriously.

Although it's downright depressing that America hasn't fully realized that everyone should have the right to marry whomever they want, I feel pretty sorry for Miss California, because she totally got screwed for no reason other than telling the truth.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll explain. Carrie Prejean, Miss California, participated in the Miss USA beauty pageant last week. One of the "celebrity" judges, openly gay and I guess relevant blogger Perez Hilton, asked her her opinions about gay marriage. Prejean stood true to her lifelong Christian values by stating that "marriage should be between a man and a woman", drawing mixed reactions from the crowd.

Ultimately she finished just short of the title of Miss USA, and its quite likely that her answer to that question is what did her in. That, or the fact, that Perez Hilton gave her zero points that round because he had a personal disagreement with her.

Firstly, why is someone as clown-like and obscene as Perez Hilton being allowed to participate in what should be a relatively tame and sophisticated event? Look, guys; take this thing at face value. You're the Miss USA pageant. Letting some penis-drawing quasi-celebrity on your production isn't going to give you any "edge", it just leads to awkward situations like this one. He then preceded to gloat about his moral victory over her in a YouTube video made merely minutes after the event was over.

I don't follow beauty pageants very closely really. I didn't know they got into such controversial subject matter. The question and answer segment of beauty pageants have always seemed to me to be more about being able to bullshit for a few seconds without stammering than about actually impressing anyone with your knowledge or profundity.

Anyway, we live in a country whose entire existence is virtually based upon being able to hold and state your opinions--no matter how unpopular or inappropriate--without being persecuted or prosecuted (or presumably screwed out of winning a beauty pageant, by extension), so I vote thumbsdown for Perez Hilton for being a douchebag.

One day, Americans will learn that gay people are also humans (and therefore are entitled to the same rights), and that freedom and fairness trumps the Bible when it comes to law (ooh I bet that one got under Christians' skin), but humiliating the people who haven't gotten there yet isn't really helping the cause.