Michael Steele has redeemed himself in my eyes. While I have been hard on Michael Steele (no homo) for being the Republican version of gaffe-machine Joe Biden, I think that his analysis of the Miss California and Perez Hilton issue was spot on. For some background, here’s Miss California who was asked by Perez Hilton, an openly homosexual blogger who is a Cuban-American Miami native, a question about same-sex marriage during the Miss America beauty pageant:

Her answer was less than stellar, saying “I think that I believe…” instead of simply expressing her view, too much hesitation, but the question itself was a loaded one being asked by judge who was viewed to be biased. Perez Hilton immediately posted a video blog where he calls Miss California a stupid b**** and says that the correct answer would have been that “states should decide whether or not they want same-sex marriage.” I guess that standing up for her beliefs that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman was the wrong answer. Here’s the clip:

We can see from the first clip that people applauded her, so I’m not sure that Perez is being truthful when he called it the worst answer in pageant history and that she was booed. He signs off by saying that he “needs a cocktail.” Alcohol, bad language, and bias all within the span of two minutes or so… definitely not the type of person who should be judging the personalities and beauty of others.

Anyways, Michael Steele makes an excellent point where he points to this Perez Hilton affair, that there are elements in this country that are trying to impose, using “political correctness” as a cover, their own agenda and silence opposition. For a beauty pageant judge to say that support for heterosexual marriage is “divisive” and that opening the door for same-sex marriage is by definition a “unifying” message is to advocate the silencing of the debate on the subject. Worse still is the fact that Perez seems to have disqualified her because of her honest answer that he disagreed with and then decided to go online and call her all sorts of nasty things. Here’s Michael Steele’s take, who talks about how this “empathetic judge” used a certain community’s beliefs to hijack this event and is but a microcosm of what liberals want to do, pit one community against the other:

Furthermore, if I were a judge on this panel, I would never ask a question on Che Guevara… why? Because I know what this person has done to humanity and if a contestant would have answered that they loved Che (because they are ignorant) because he represents “change” or “revolution” or whatever, then I would immediately disqualify them. I might not be objective. So I would not ask a question like that without first being prepared to accept the opposing point of view. Perez Hilton has said that the answer would have had to appease the gay and lesbian community. That is just plain wrong. The answer should be honest. Miss California having to answer Perez Hilton is like the scene in Star Wars where the commander has to tell Darth Vader some bad news:

Miss America contestants should not have to pass the same-sex marriage litmus test in order to be crowned.

-AG