On Sunday April 19, the Miss USA pageant was held here in Las Vegas. It was the 58th pageant put on. Planet Hollywood’s Theater of Performing Arts was filled with thousands of pageant competitors and fans.
Ladies from fifty states and the District of Columbia competed. Performances included Kevin Rudolf and the Veronicas. They sang their hit songs “Let It Rock” and “Untouched.” The representatives of each state were selected in 2008 and the beginning of 2009. With many unique people, the contestants were bound to have a great experience.
This year there was a purpose added to the show. Although this crowning would be the 58th, there was something new. “Go Green,” went Universal with NBC Networking. The Miss USA competition was now working to help the universe and make it “eco-friendly.”
The night started off with an introduction of all the competitors. They were then narrowed down to 15. There were night gown competitions and swimsuit competitions. The contestants were later narrowed down to 10. The final ten delegates would soon turn into 5. The top 5 chosen by the judges were Miss North Carolina, Miss Arizona, Miss California, Miss Utah, and Miss Kentucky.
Once in the top five, the ladies had to answers questions asked by a judge. The contestant would walk up to the jar and pick out a card with a judges name on it. The judge would then ask a question and it was the contestant’s responsibility to answer it appropriately.
Miss California came up and received her question from judge Perez Hilton. The question related to what she thought about legalizing same sex marriage. The rest of the delegates received questions that were not as controversial as Miss California’s (Carrie Prejean). Carrie look stunned when the question was asked. She was on live TV, with a live audience and had just been placed in a horrible situation. "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage," Prejean said. "And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised." This response brought mainly cheers, until Judge Hilton shook his head. (Perez Hilton himself is in fact gay.)
The crowning of Miss USA came down to Miss California and Miss North Carolina (Kristen Dalton). Kristen won and Carrie became the runner up. After the competition, problems arose due to the question. There were two sides to the question that were left in shock. A man in the audience and his partner were very hurt by the response and felt they were mistreated and it was unfair. On the other hand, the other parts of the audience said, “It is in the Bible, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”
For Miss California, it was not matter of debate, rather a matter of the results in the competition. Would she have become Miss USA? No one knows the real answer, but the question did not help her cause. She stated what she felt was right and was penalized due to same sex marriage believers. She was later interviewed by Matt Lauer and did not want to take it back or change anything she said.