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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 12th, 2009
The Miss California Pageant has replaced one young Christian girl… with another, Teri Farrell.
According to the Kansas City Star,
She’s a Christian. Farrell recently finished recording her first demo CD and performed during a Christian cruise to the Bahamas last summer. Last fall she worked with Christian recording artists, Sonic Flood, on a new CD project.
And the Mercury News is telling us that she doesn’t support marriage equality
In a television interview Thursday, [Tami] Farrell said she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. But she added: “I don’t think I have the right or anybody has the right to tell somebody who they can or can’t love.”
But it seems that Tami, unlike Carrie, doesn’t think her opinion on the matter is the result of some battle between God and Satan or that she’s qualified to weigh in authoritatively.
But what about gay marriage? Farrell feels it is “hilarious that the world is turning to beauty queens for the answers” on gay marriage, but she didn’t have a strong opinion on either side of the debate.
“I don’t think I have the right, or anyone has the right, to tell somebody who they can or cannot love. I think this is a civil rights issue, and I think the right thing to do is to let the voters decide.”
TMZ has video from CNN in which she says that the decision should be state by state and that she isn’t interested in hooking up with anti-gay organizations.
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Andrew
June 12th, 2009
Now here’s someone I can work with. She has her own opinion. She’s not strident, she understands the absurdity of the situation, and she’s a “hands-off” kind of person. This is so much more in keeping with most of the conservative Christian folk I encounter – aware, thoughtful, and possessing an opinion, but humble and open-handed. I’m happy to differ with Ms. Farrell, but I’m not at all unhappy that she’s got the name of my state across her sash.
Lindoro Almaviva
June 13th, 2009
OK, I think the difference here is not necessarily Tami’s opinion. If you look at the GMA interview, Keith (is that his name? Will you marry me?)is keeping a very close eye on her.
I think that she was coached and told very clearly that as an employee of Miss Cali, she was going to read from the script and her personal opinions be dammed.
I actually see a girl who is trying to dance a difficult dance here. She knows what happened to Carrie and Keith is not about to have the same thing happen to the organization.
I have a feeling that this time, he coached her strongly and she is being careful to please her boss and not to waste this opportunity.
Sorry, these days, I just do not trust anyone who comes and says the stuff that she says, mainly because I do not see marriage equality as a state-only issue and I certainly believe voters do not have a say on the issue; both are cop-outs. People have no right to vote on anyone’s rights and there is a federal issue to marriage that is still unresolved. So either remove the federal benefits of marriage, or be honest and say that marriage is a federal issue as much as a state issue.
Jason D
June 13th, 2009
Ha! Good!
I mean good in the sense that this undermines Carrie’s “I’m being punished for my views and beliefs!” mantra.
Really, Carrie? They replaced one person who’s not in favor of marriage equality with someone else who’s ALSO not in favor of marriage equality. Gee, I guess you can’t say you’re being persecuted.
Has anyone bothered to check what the views are of Miss USA (who’s been undeservedly lost in the shuffle) she mentions in her bio her “missionary work” — so it would not be too farfetched to suggest that she’s a christian, and an active one at that. Doesn’t mean she’s against marriage equality, but it’s certainly possible.
CLS
June 13th, 2009
Hilariously her answer is self-contradictory. She doesn’t think “anyone has the right to tell somebody who they can or cannot love” but apparently everyone has that right since “the right thing to do is let the voters decide.”
The real question is: When did individual rights become a matter of majority opinion? Is that theory just a advocating a glorified lynch mob. Surely in a lynch mob the majority expresses an opinion which is pretty much accepted by all with the obvious exception of an insignificant minority of one.
GreenEyedLilo
June 13th, 2009
Good points, Jason. It’s actually kind of better this way.
I still want to see an openly lesbian or bisexual beauty queen, though.
Zeke
June 13th, 2009
My question is, why the hell does the Miss USA pageant have more fundamentalist Christian contestants than a Mississippi tent revival and why do gay people (coaches, hair dressers, designers, etc.) continue propping up these anti-gay fundie fests?
Jason D
June 13th, 2009
zeke, I’m about to go out on a limb here, but considering the somewhat overt sexism of the fundamentalist set — one of the highly encouraged bits of “women’s work” is the auspicious job of “being pretty”…..so as to attract a good husband. Thus “Beauty Queen” is kind of the omega of the few paths a woman has in that world.
You could almost hear the subtext during the dustup last month, the fundies wanting to say “but…how can you be mad at her…she’s pretty!”
Timothy Kincaid
June 16th, 2009
Jason,
I think your speculation about gender rolls is not without some merit.
I’d also suggest that some will see “beauty” as validation of God’s approval. An innocent face, an “inner beauty shining through” as opposed to sin making its mark, etc.
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