By Jacob Bodnar

Hopefully I wouldn’t be fooling anyone if I said that I didn’t watch the Miss USA pageant. As a matter of fact I don’t think I’d be fooling anyone if I said that no one watched the Miss USA pageant.

However, at least one person watched it, and they were able to see a great display of courage and honesty.

By now you’ve all seen what happened. Celebrity blogger and most irritating person in the world nominee Perez Hilton asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean, a loaded question about gay marriage. Instead of dancing around the question and giving and middle-of-the-road politically correct answer, Prejean spoke her mind, and said she believed that marriage was between a man and a woman.

For the record, if she had danced around the question, I’m betting Perez would have nailed her for that too.

I should preface this column by saying that I support gay rights. Notice there was no mention of marriage there. I’ve come to the conclusion that marriage is between a man and a woman, that’s simply what it was intended for. Historically speaking it’s almost always been that way. I have no problem giving gay couples the same amount of government privileges that heterosexual couples receive, but I don’t think it’s the state’s job to define marriage. Hell, I don’t even think the state should recognize “marriage,” it’d be easier if marriage was left as a religious sacrament and everything was provided under the heading of a “civil union.”

Either way, I support gay rights. I half agree with Miss California, after all I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, but I’m not sure where she stands on the bigger picture of governmental rights, so I can’t say that I agree with her one hundred percent.

But that’s really not the point. My biggest peeve stemming from this ordeal has been the response to Miss California and her comments.

After the show, Perez Hilton made a video in which he called Prejean a “dumb b****.” Way to stay classy Perez. He claimed that she shouldn’t have expressed her opinion because it somehow alienated her as a contest.

Uh…what? Since when did speaking your mind and having an opinion count against you? If we ask that of our politicians why not ask it of everyone?

Of course the gay community was outraged over this incident. I’m sure there were some that respected her point-of-view, but all the ones I heard used the opportunity to call her names and poke fun. Their reaction only hurt their cause more.

I heard one person this week say that her answer was absurd because she was vying for Miss USA and her view should represent that of the entire country. Apparently the title of Miss USA transforms you into a blank screen in which the entire country will just project their beliefs onto.

Forget the fact that the country is split on the issue, America has been known as a country that speaks its mind. We shouldn’t be tearing Miss California down for being “oppressive” or a “dumb b****” we should be propping her up as someone who spoke her mind and didn’t dance around the question, especially while under immense pressure.

Others have said that they dislike Miss California not because of her answer but because she didn’t articulate it very well.

Please, that’s simply a smoke screen for hating her because of her opinion. I have no problem with people disagreeing with Miss California, like I said I might be one of those people, but can’t you at least respect her for standing up for what she believes it. After all that answer probably lost her the pageant, she gave up a dream so she could speak her mind honestly. That’s extraordinarily commendable. It’s so rare in this country we usually only seen courage and poise like that in movies.

Instead of tearing down Miss California lets applaud her. You may not agree with what she said, but at least give her the respect she deserves for saying it.

Jacob Bodnar is the host and producer of the weekly conservative podcast, The Current Podcast. His shows and columns can be accessed at http://www.thecurrentpodcast.com He also blogs at JacobBodnar.com