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I’m not sure how many of you have signed on to the twitter craze, but Perez Hilton has a twitter conversation going on with a ton of celebrities. He also has seven hundred thousand people who follow his 140 character updates and comments.
Well, after the Miss California story broke, Hilton decided to start “tweeting” every celebrity he could think of asking if they support gay marriage. Brittany responded, as did Miley Cyrus and Heidi Montag. They all support equality.
Then the official Miss USA came out in support of legal recognition for gay couples. In a moment of Obama-esque political savvy she told MSNBC,
“The beautiful part about America is that we have the right to choose. We have the right to choose who we want to love, commit and spend the rest of our lives with. I think that all couples … should be able to be recognized legally. They should be able to enter into a union. Whether or not it should be defined as marriage, I’ll leave that up to the politicians.”
For those who wondered if the Miss USA pageant mattered, it has now spurred a twitter campaign, celebrities for gay marriage, and has news outlets across the country debating the right to free speech and the expectation of equal treatment.
What this teaches us is that there is more than one way to win the gay rights struggle. Tolerance is important, political gains matter, but part of what people need to learn is that expressing discriminatory views is not permitted in mainstream discourse.
Just like we shun people who make it clear that they don’t support the rights of the disabled, Black Americans, women, we should exclude those who express intolerance towards the LGBT community from public discourse.
Personal intolerance will never be completely eradicated, but at least we can remove it from our public “representatives,” both in Hollywood and Washington.
Perez Hilton is a jerk. It was an inappropriate question, and a typical temper tantrum by someone with some severe mental problems. Do I agree with her? Of course not. But he asked HER OPINION, and then true to form, acted just a spoiled baby because he didn’t like the answer. If the conservatives had a similar reaction, what would we think of them?
Perez exemplifies the worst of the gay community.
This is an appropriate comment from a pageant contestant. It’s messured and diplomatic. that’s really where Miss California went wrong.
Thanks for showing me the silver lining… Though Miss USA is just about the last person I’d turn to for wisdom, it is interesting to see that the perception of homophobia seems almost as unacceptable as the perception of racism. I’m glad it’s playing out in the World of Beauty Pageants. It’ll download directly into the brains of gazillions of young girls and boys and leave a strong imprint. I’d never have noticed if you hadn’t decided to take a closer look.
Sorry JPP, disagree with you totally. The questions were pre-approved, the contestants had time to prepare for them as well. “Choose your words carefully” would have been the proper way to go. I also have a problem with these “good, moral, religious believing people”, as she is trying to portray, who strut their bodies around on stage in provacative poses, dances and swimsuits for people to “judge” and ogle over. Somehow the two images don’t fit together. How much you wanna bet she will end up on a 700 Club story with Patty Rob-your-son and the old has-been beauty queen Terri Nuisance being portrayed as a good wholesome X-tian who lost because she stood up for “traditional” marriage and family?
Perez Hilton is not good guy in this in my book, I don’t think the question was particularly appropriate for the the contest. I also think he handled it like a spoiled brat and then made him self and the gay community look bad as he embarked on the press tour as our “representative”. I mean calling her a B@$% and and then alluding to wanting to call her a C@$& on National TV is not what we need. If he had given a polite reply that pointed out the ungratefullness of her response (what struck me as more of the problem) and pointed out the some what off facts she used it would have been better. But then again over all I would not be sad to see Parez Hilton return to the sewer where the other scum like him belongs.
Jere, now imagine I start going off on you and calling you a c**t for not agreeing with me.
Imagine if someone without a raging insecurity complex had asked her that question, then thanked her for her honesty, and moved on. Who would have looked worse? Now, it’s between someone who gave their honest opinion, which is their right, and someone like Perez Hilton calling her dirty names and using her to try and squeeze more publicity for himself?
>…is that expressing discriminatory views is not permitted in mainstream discourse.
Of course it’s permitted. I know what you’re *trying* to say, but it came out as if you don’t believe in the first amendment of free speech (“permitted”).
How about something like: it should no longer be assumed that abusive language or calls for discrimination against gay people will be greeted with social tolerance anymore. If you insist on doing that, people are going to want to excuse themselves or move to a different table, if you know what I mean.
Ok, first of all, Perez made it VERY clear that he is not a representative of the gay community. Second, each of the contestants got asked a question the dealt with a “hot-button” issue. The problem I saw with Miss California’s answer isn’t the fact that she opposes same-sex marriage, but the way that she said it “no offense, but…” I mean, seriously. It didn’t sound very diplomatic. The problem is that Miss USA has an obligation to be representative of all Americans, and frankly, I think she should have politely dodged the question, and perhaps said something to the effect of “well, this has been an ongoing debate, and people on both sides are very passionate about their views. My hope is that as this debate proceeds, that both sides are able to treat each other with respect.” Or some other fluff answer like that. She shouldn’t have waded into such a divisive issue to begin with.
“Obama-esque political savvy” is more accurately called “antigay discrimination.” What else would you call opposition to marriage equality and to back-tracking on eliminating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Let’s have one standard for all politicians, whether its Obama or McCain or Bush.
Why does the gay community continue to allow people like Perez Hilton to presume to speak for us? In my opinion everyone involved is an imbarassment to his/her camp: Miss California to the social conservatives, Perez Hilton to the Gay community and Donald Trump to the wealthy.
Why is it wrong for Miss California to say Marriage is between one-man-one-woman, but when Obama and Hillary said the same exact thing during the election, the intelligentsia didnt say a peep, and in fact praises them for leadership. I SMELL HYPOCRISY!
People get a grip, she was at work interviewing for a promotion. She wanted to go from Miss CA to Miss USA. Absolutely one’s commitment to diversity is a legitimate question. If you were trying to get promoted at your place of business and said the same thing about disabled people, you would not get the promotion. Why should a pageant be any different?
I don’t understand why some of you in here said “this is not an appropriate question”. Do you think gay marriage is a shameful question to ask or it should be kept in a closet like some of you do?. I totally agree with Perez that there are so many ways to answer this question without making gays look like freaks. You may not like what you are or be proud of being gay.So shame on you. I, as a gay man and as a human being, will not compromise my right to anyone including this so-called miss California,who I think, is not really beautiful. Reading some of the comments in here makes me wonder if some of gay men in here had voted “yes” for the prop 8. Shame on you. You know who you are.
is she said “i dont think niggas or spics” should marry “honkys” she would have lost, so, this is same thing in my opinion, [screw] her. stupid whore. beauty pagaents are stupid and insult to women!j
perez hilton is a dumb turd too, who in the hell picked that queen to be a judge?
The real issue is that the anti-gay movement is against freedom of speech and religious liberty. They want the special right to revile and condemn gay people free of response, criticism or negative comments. They can say whatever they want and the pro-equality side is supposed to shut up and sit down. What about the freedom of speech and religious liberty of the millions of Americans who find homophobia sinful and morally repugnant? Miss. California can say whatever she wants. But she can’t whine and moan when the other side does the same thing. Freedom goes both ways.