Contentious litigation between Prejean and the Miss California organization was settled in November Later that month, Prejean released a book relating the story from her point of view. Her mother is an Italian American, and her father is of French descent. In , Prejean's parents separated and subsequently started divorce proceedings. According to her autobiography, Prejean considered the divorce a "trauma that irrevocably shaped the rest of my life". Prejean graduated in from Vista High School.
'Miss California' defends views on gay marriage | The Independent
On April 19, , during the ceremony of Miss USA in Las Vegas , Nevada , the five finalists were all asked about political issues such as how to fight domestic violence, whether to use taxpayer money to bail out corporations, whether to give immigrants access to health care, and whether or the United States should donate money to the government of Afghanistan to fund its elections. Kenya Moore , Miss USA , has stated that the questions were "far too political and it's divisive as well". At the time of the pageant same-sex marriage was legal in two US states. In California the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in the In re Marriage Cases ruling; voters subsequently passed Proposition 8 which made it illegal. The topic was a focus of controversy in American politics at the time of the pageant. Hilton asked:.
Miss California sparks outrage over gay marriage remarks
After gossip blogger Perez Hilton recorded a video in which he called Miss California Carrie Prejean a "dumb bitch" in response to her public opposition to same-sex marriage, the National Organization for Marriage NOM incorporated a clip of his tirade into an advertisement called "No Offense," depicting same-sex marriage opponents as under attack. The advertisement also included a brief clip of the Miss USA pageant where Prejean made her statement opposing same-sex marriage. Lawyers for the Miss Universe Organization claimed that the ad infringed their copyrights by including a portion of the TV broadcast of the pageant, and Perez issued a DMCA takedown notice to YouTube, claiming that it illegally copied a portion of the video commentary posted to his blog. Both were short and used only a minimal amount of the original content in order to demonstrate the controversy.
April 20, Mixing a beauty pageant with politics is a recipe for disaster. You could make a strong case for it, anyway. Both times the non-winner of a pageant got all the attention the next day.