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Former Miss California Sues for Religious Discrimination

By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer Carrie Prejean, the recently dethroned Miss California who spoke in defense of traditional marriage during this year’s Miss USA pageant is suing the franchise for defaming and discriminating against her because of her beliefs. According to a report by TMZ.com, Prejean filed the suit in L.A. County Superior Court accusing Shanna Moakler, Keith Lewis and other pageant officials of religious discrimination, public disclosure of private facts, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Ms. Prejean was fired from her post as Miss California USA on June 10, two months after her now famous answer to a question about same-sex marriage posed by homosexual pageant judge Perez Hilton. She said it was her belief that marriage was between a man and woman. Almost immediately, Hilton began to publicly savage her, calling her vile names and saying that if she had answered differently, she would have been crowned Miss USA instead of being a runner up. Hilton became even more incensed when Prejean appeared on the Today Show shortly after the pageant saying she would rather be "biblically correct than politically correct." From that time on, Ms. Prejean’s suit claims Miss California pageant officials began to try to set her up to be fired, which occurred on June 10. Officials claimed she missed appearances and did not get clearance to do extra curricular activities. But in her suit, Carrie says the Miss California USA people "fabricated a fraudulent list of some 50 public appearances allegedly missed by Prejean which they released to the media in order to justify her termination as Miss California USA." In the suit, Carrie claims officials also tried to "set up Prejean to have her dismissed as Miss California USA by asking her to do a Playboy photo shoot for $120,000." "Over the past two months we have worked hard to provide overwhelming evidence that Carrie Prejean did not violate her contract with Miss California USA and did not deserve to have her title revoked by Keith Lewis,” said Ms. Prejean's lawyer, Charles S. LiMandri, in a statement to Big Hollywood. "We will make the case that her title was taken from her solely because of her support of traditional marriage. Keith Lewis has refused to clear her good name or even to admit any wrongdoing. Therefore, Carrie Prejean is left with no alternative but to take her case to court where she expects to be fully vindicated."    Donald Trump, the owner of Miss Universe USA, is not named in the suit. A representative for Shanna Moakler told TMZ that Ms. Moakler believes the lawsuit is without merit. “ . . .(A)s everyone who watched or read her public statements is well aware, Ms. Prejean's unfortunate and bigoted statements are responsible for any public humiliation or damages to her reputation that she has claimed to have suffered.” Since being dethroned, Ms. Prejean has been advocating for traditional marriage with the National Organization for Marriage and maintains that the most important lesson she has learned is that "nothing is more important than standing up for what you believe in, no matter what the cost may be." © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

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