The Practical Realist

Ok, I know the whole Carrie Prejean issue is old news now, but I’ve gone through a few different thoughts on it now and figure maybe they’re still worth sharing.

In the first place, I should explain that I’m personally against gay marriage. Not to the point that I’d let it overshadow or steal attention from more important issues, but if I were asked I’d give an honest answer.

And that was what happened to Miss California. She was asked a question and she gave her honest answer. She didn’t go in with an agenda, and she wasn’t obnoxious about it when she responded.

So my first reaction to the story about Miss California losing the Miss USA crown over her belief in traditional marriage was the same as a lot of conservatives. I was angry that she was persecuted for simply stating her beliefs honestly. If the judges didn’t want to hear her opinion, then they shouldn’t have asked her for it. And if they did want it, they shouldn’t have punished her for having an opinion different from their own.

But after thinking about it some, and especially after reading her actual response, I couldn’t help but be struck by how dumb it sounded. It doesn’t matter whether you’re for or against gay marriage, but Carrie Prejean made herself sound like an idiot up there. Stupidity, and not principle, is a legitimate reason to deny a contestant the prize at the end. In that light, I no longer hold any resentment for the judges.

Now, in fairness, I wasn’t the one put on the spot, and if Miss Prejean had been given more time to reflect and formulate a response, she might have done a better job. I can’t know whether I could have come up with an intelligent answer during an interview in a situation like that, but here’s the response I wish she could have given instead:

“There are gay people who clearly love each other and I understand their desire to have it recognized as marriage. But no court or legislative body in the world has the authority to do so. Marriage has existed long before the laws and courts of the United States. For as long as there have been people, there has been marriage. And to come along and try to redefine it through some new law or legal opinion is, in my mind, like trying to pass a law redefining ’sunrise’, ‘logic’, or ‘motherhood’. Marriage is what it has always been. God made it, and if you want to change it, you’ll have to take it up with Him.

“The role of the state with respect to marriage is limited to what rights and obligations it chooses to attach to it. If the state should determine that gay couples (or anyone, for that matter) can voluntarily enter into such contracts with or without marriage, then that is entirely within the ability of the state to do. Civil unions come to mind, for instance. But gay couples can never marry, regardless of what laws are passed, because a marriage is between a man and a woman. It has always been that way, and so long as humanity exists, it always will be.”