Carrie Prejean And Perez Hilton:

Advocates For Marriage? We Think Not

 

By Meghan Chavalier

May 13, 2009

Opportunist: "Someone taking advantage of opportunities as they arise: exploiting opportunities with little regard to principle or consequences"

I know I know if you have to hear this story one more time you're going to stop reading or watching the news ever again but where is the voice of reason when it comes to the story about the Carrie Prejean and Perez Hilton?

This situation got way out of hand. One question, one answer and a whirlwind of media. It was like something important had happened that was going to change the world, instead what we got was an onslaught of two people that most people could care less about.

We had to see both of them on every news program selling their story like they were selling a magic elixir that would fix the ills of the world. What we got from both of them was nothing more than two opportunists taking full advantage of the media to get their names in the news.

When it comes to marriage, straight or gay, neither one of these people are great choices to be advocates. My own personal opinion? Of course, but one shared by many.

To me, it was ridiculous that so much time was wasted in the media telling this story, when they could have been giving us news that mattered. What's the situation in Iraq right now? How many young men and women have lost their lives in the war? How many people have died from AIDS? How many people are homeless? How many people have lost their jobs and can't afford to feed their children?

These are the stories that should matter to the public, not a story about a beauty contestant who doesn't agree with the gossip columnist judge about gay marriage. Who cares?

The beauty contestant has obviously not been truthful about her past but she got to keep her crown, the gossip columnist has gone back to doing what he does best which is inflicting his useless information on the public, so maybe the real news sources can finally let this story go and move onto something that matters.

What this whole thing did was polarize the gay marriage fight for about two weeks in the media and honestly it caused a division between the straight and gay community. It didn't make us take a step forward, it made everyone draw lines in the sand once more. It shouldn't have, because it shouldn't have mattered. This whole situation was ridiculous. This was nothing more than two opportunists who took time out of their day to figure out how to get their names in the news.

Gay rights advocates who are true to LGBT causes know this. The time that was wasted reporting on the story could have been spent working harder to make sure that the LGBT community would be afforded the same equal rights as the rest of the United States of America. We could of had two weeks of real news about gay marriage and how our community has progressed.

The time has come to lay down our own line in the sand, but one that leaves a space in the middle where gay people and straight people can cross over and learn to stand together as one. The time has come for the division of our two communities to end. We must learn to work together, and accept each other's differences. We won't always agree with each other, but hopefully one day in the future we can learn to understand one another enough that we can live peacefully amongst one another.