Miss California becomes Right-wing pin-up

A beauty queen who voiced her disapproval of gay marriage during a Miss USA pageant has become an unlikely pin-up for Right-wingers after she was subsequently insulted by one of the judges.

Carrie Prejean has spent the week since she lost out on the coveted crown standing by her anti-gay marriage views as debate has raged about her remarks.

Saying she "had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God", she told ABC: "It's not about being politically correct. For me, it's about being biblically correct."

During the beauty contest she was asked for her views on gay marriage, which has recently been allowed by four new states, by Perez Hilton, a celebrity blogger who is openly gay.

She replied that "I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. But in my country, and in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

Contesting for California – which voted to ban gay marriage in November – she claimed her honest response had cost her the title, a claim denied by other judges who said they were uncomfortable with her expressing overt views when the Miss USA has to represent the whole country.

Either way, she has eclipsed the winner, Kristen Dalton from North Carolina.

Mr Hilton promptly called Miss Prejean "the B word" on his blog, and said he would have liked to call her something stronger, setting off a fresh skirmish in America's cultural war that has yet to die down.

Gary Schneeberger, vice-president of Focus on the Family, the country's largest conservative Christian pressure group, was among many who pointed out that Mr Hilton and his supporters were not showing Miss Prejean the same tolerance demanded by the gay community.

"Those who lean to the left ideologically like to paint those of us on the other side as the 'intolerant' ones," Mr Schneeberger wrote.

"But some of them are going to have a hard time whitewashing the intolerance they've shown to Carrie Prejean."

Pointing out that 30 states had banned gay marriage, he went on: "What Mr Hilton and many other of Miss Prejean's attackers really mean is that they'd prefer people not bring their political and ideological convictions into the public square unless they align with the political and ideological convictions of Mr Hilton et al."

The Washington Times wrote in an editorial: "Pageants used to celebrate good, old-fashioned values, but today a young lady cannot be crowned Miss USA unless she supports same-sex marriage."

Catholic.org compared Miss Prejean to the Pope. "Miss California is a Christian. She is a student at San Diego Christian College, an evangelical Protestant school," it wrote.

"She answered with the kind of integrity and honesty which speaks of what Pope Benedict XVI has called a 'moral coherence'."

Among gay activists there was criticism of Mr Hilton's diatribe.

Rich Tafel, founder of the gay advocacy group the Log Cabin Republicans said: "I think it was a perfectly acceptable question. And though I completely disagree with her, I think her response was perfectly fine too."

He said there was a danger of losing the "moral high ground that propelled our cause. Calling this woman an unprintable name, as Perez Hilton did, is indefensible."