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Lightning Rod

Carrie Prejean's Sex Tape

It's fair to say that on Thursday morning, former Miss California beauty queen Carrie Prejean lost her moral war with the gay rights community. What began as a legitimate, if heated disagreement over political views has veered off a cliff into hypocrisy, resignation, topless photos, and the Internet's equivalent of rock bottom--the discovery of a sex tape.
 
How did we get here?
Earlier this year, the beauty queen declared her opposition to gay marriage on live television: "I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman," she said. Prejean was attacked by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, was stripped of her Miss California crown, sued the pagent for libel, was countersued for her breast implant money, and this week dropped her suit because pageant reportedly produced a sex tape featuring the conservative beauty queen. Prejean's political enemies are enjoying every minute:
  • Committed to Heterosexuality  At TrueSlant, Harmon Leon is glad Prejean is practicing what she preaches. "Yes, Carrie Prejean is not ashamed of her religious beliefs or getting it on for the whole world to see. With the same logic the religious right claims that God created dinosaur bones to test our faith, I think he also created the Carrie Prejean sex tape..."
  • Hypocritical Cliche  Pam Spaulding of the Pam's House Blend blog calls Prejean a hypocrite. "Does this mean she won't headline the Values Voter Summit 2010?"
  • Sometimes, God Has a Wicked Sense of Humor  At Americablog, John Aravosis says he "can just imagine protesters showing up at her religious right anti-gay speaking engagements, holding signs with blown up stills from her movie debut." What's next for Prejean? Aravosis says it's "hard to see how to she continues her gig with the bigots now."
  • Where's the Tape?  Donald Douglas of the conservative blog American Power wants proof such a tape exists. "There's been too much funny stuff going on throughout this scandal; and such a resolution is just too perfect for Ms. Prejean's enemies," he writes.
  • Unbelievable  Taylor Marsh is a little amused, but mostly disgusted. "The more someone feigns purity, while getting breast implants and strutting around acting like purity’s manifestation, the more suspicious I am," she writes. "But how these upright Republican beacons of hypocrisy can use God as a shield is a mastery of theater few can manifest. It really must be in their DNA.

The Debate

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