Can Reasonable People Disagree with You about Gay Marriage?

I guess everything that needs to be said about this has been said already, but I'd just like to add my voice to those who are puzzled by the flap over Miss California's response to a judge's question in the Miss USA pageant. Basically, if you haven't heard, some gay celebrity asked Carrie Prejean about same-sex marriage, and she responded by saying that she believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. That's it. That's the "controversy."

I do not oppose gay marriage, and I recently voted against a proposition that sought to ban gay marriage in California. I don't oppose it even though I do not resonate to the arguments favored by many on the left, who see it as an issue of "equality" or "civil rights." I don't see it that way at all, and in that respect, I am like a lot of blacks:

In a recent poll, 65 percent of blacks opposed same-sex marriage, although other surveys have shown strong support for laws banning discrimination against gays. What offends most black people is the comparison between the gay-marriage struggle and the black struggle for civil rights.

Like many blacks, I also do not equate these two struggles, but I can see how others might (i.e., I can see how reasonable people would see things differently than I do). Perhaps it is because I do not frame the issue in the way that social progressives do that I am having trouble understanding why the comments made by Carrie Prejean are even slightly controversial, much less hugely controversial. Maybe I have something wrong in my line of thinking about this issue, and if I do, I hope someone can straighten me out. Here is my line of reasoning:

1. a judge (not Carrie Prejean) came up with the question

2. Prejean answered the question honestly (not dishonestly)

3. She gave an answer that corresponds to the views of the majority of people in her home state, to the majority of Americans, and to the majority of blacks. It is also the view held by President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden (and Hillary Clinton, I believe). John McCain holds that view as well.

All that said, I don't see anything even slightly controversial here. A view that is that widely held cannot be regarded as inherently controversial. If a reporter wants to characterize it as a controversy, shouldn't an explanation be provided for those of us who don't have the liberal reflexes of the mainstream media? I guess not. In response to Prejean's answer, the media has relentlessly portrayed this as a controversy without ever saying why it is a controversy. Now, CNN is excitedly abetting a malicious attempt by some unprincipled purveyors of a web site to attract traffic by "slowly rolling out" racy photos of Prejean. That seems pathetic to me. I realize that to most reporters (most of whom hail from the left), her views on gay marriage are not just wrong but are downright illegitimate (that how it seems to people on the left), but that doesn't mean they should try to delegitimize someone with whom they disagree. Unfortunately, that's what they are doing, and I am guessing that many on the left who favor gay marriage (and who have a strong tendency to demonize their political opponents) are enjoying the spectacle.

In any case, the CNN story has this line:

The 21-year-old Miss USA contestant has been the center of controversy since she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question on the national pageant stage last month.

But what is the controversy, exactly? That's my question. Can anyone help me out here? Perhaps Prejean planted the question in order grandstand about her views on gay marriage. If so, then I'd understand. Or perhaps people believe that, when surprised by the question, Prejean should have lied through her teeth instead of being honest. Is that why this is controversial? I just don't know.

Unless I have my facts wrong (e.g., unless she planted the question), then CNN should have said this:

The 21-year-old Miss USA contestant has been the center of a mainstream media firestorm since she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question on the national pageant stage last month. Unlike most Americans and unlike the president of the United States, reporters generally consider her view to be as illegitimate as the long-discredited view that blacks do not deserve the same rights as whites.

That's what lies at the root of this "controversy," so far as I can tell.