Alabama House wastes time

Carrie Prejean thinks her beliefs cost her the title of Miss USA. She may be right. But is it the business of the Alabama House of Representatives?

Certainly not. The House has better things to do, although its members go to great lengths to keep from tackling tough issues like adequately funding education.

Prejean competed in last week’s pageant as Miss California and had ascended to the finals when she got stuck with a thorny question about same-sex marriages. Although she represented one of the nation’s most liberal states, Miss California is firmly rooted in conservative values. She spoke her conviction — marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman.

Prejean didn’t win the pageant. She came in first-runner up to Miss North Carolina, Kristen Dalton, who may have won regardless.

Rep. Jay Love, a Montgomery Republican and conservative’s conservative, introduced a resolution in the Alabama House commending Prejean for speaking out against gay marriage. The resolution was approved on a voice vote, which shields lawmakers from accountability on this particular waste of the people’s time.

Who won the pageant and why is irrelevant in the Alabama House, as is how one woman feels about a controversial topic. Certainly someone should not be pilloried for expressing a viewpoint shared by many Americans, including prominent political, social and entertainment figures. The pageant judge who posed the question, openly homosexual blogger Perez Hilton, even posted a profane rant toward Prejean on his Web site, further trivializing the flap.

That’s unfair, and reflects poorly on a contest that should concern itself with how a contestant expresses herself, not the content of her expression.

Carrie Prejean could have tailored her answer to suit the judge who questioned her. Instead, she politely stood on the values her family instilled in her, and exhibited more character than anyone else in the room.

If the Alabama House is moved to pass a meaningless resolution on this far-flung flap, it would have been more appropriate to recognize Prejean’s integrity rather than take sides in a controversy that has no significance in Alabama.