With a hectic schedule of appearances
on the right-wing Christian circuit and a memoir in the works, the
metamorphosis from beauty queen to social conservative celebrity is
complete for Carrie Prejean.
Prejean became an overnight Christian
celebrity after she denounced gay marriage because of her religious
upbringing during the Miss USA contest in April and aligned herself
with Maggie Gallagher's anti-gay marriage group the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM).
The controversy spun out of control
when openly gay blogger Perez Hilton, the judge who asked Prejean her
thoughts on gay marriage, posted a nasty video on his website
PerezHilton.com where he says, “She gave the worst answer in
pageant history. She lost because she's a dumb bitch, OK?”
Social conservatives cheered when
Prejean argued that she was denied the crown because she refused to
back down from her religious beliefs.
“[I lost] because I had spoken from
my heart, for my beliefs and for my God,” Prejean said on NBC's
Today Show. “It's not about being politically correct, for
me, it's about being biblically correct.”
Prejean and her supporters drove that
point home in an anti-gay marriage ad that accused gay rights
activists of attacking Prejean on her opposition to gay marriage.
The ad claimed gay activists attack people who disagree with them
because they don't want to debate the dire consequences of gay
marriage.
And the decision to fire Prejean as
Miss California over contract violations was also a result of her
anti-gay posture, Prejean says.
Prejean's invitation to appear at the
Values Voter Summit in the nation's Capitol in September to speak
next to social conservative icons like Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and
Phyllis Schlafly secures her position as a rising social conservative
celebrity.
And her memoir, Still Standing,
will be published by the conservative book house Regnery Publishing.