Controversial Miss California USA and Miss USA first runner-up Carrie Prejean was stripped of her California crown June 10.
Pageant officials said she wasn't fulfilling her duties.
Prejean had become an unofficial spokesperson for the anti-gay-marriage movement after the brouhaha at the Miss USA pageant April 19, where she had said, in response to a question from gay judge Perez Hilton: "Um, we live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage and—you know what?—in my country and in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman—no offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think that it should be: between a man and a woman."
Later that evening, Hilton posted a video on his popular blog in which he called Prejean "a dumb bitch" and said, "If that girl would have won Miss USA, I would have gone up onstage—I shit you not—I would have gone up onstage, snatched that tiara off her head and run out the door."
The blog video caused the story to mushroom, as did Prejean's comment to this news column a week later that people aren't born gay but rather "it's a behavior that develops over time."
Prejean later appeared at a press event and in a TV ad for the National Organization for Marriage, an activist group opposed to same-sex nuptials. Numerous national TV appearances followed, along with a revelation that she'd recently had breast implants. And topless photos of her appeared on the Internet.
In firing Prejean, the Miss California USA organization said: "This was a decision based solely on contract violations including Ms. Prejean's unwillingness to make appearances on behalf of the Miss California USA organization. ... It has become abundantly clear that Carrie is unwilling to fulfill her obligations under our contract and work together."
Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump said he supported her firing.
"I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California USA organization and I gave her the opportunity to do so," Trump said. "Unfortunately it just doesn't look like it is going to happen and I offered ( Miss California USA Executive Director ) Keith ( Lewis ) my full support in making this decision. Carrie is a beautiful young woman and I wish her well as she pursues her other interests."
Prejean and her lawyer have publicly contested the charge that she violated her contract.
The new Miss California USA is Miss Malibu, Tami Farrell, who had been first runner-up in the state pageant.
In an interview with Fox News on June 11, Farrell, when prodded, very reluctantly said she also thinks marriage is between a man and a woman.
She also said: "You know, I think it's hilarious right now that the world is turning to beauty queens for the answers for this. I think it's an important issue and I think that it's one that I don't think I can win a battle. I don't want to be any more divisive than it's already become. ... I don't think that I have the right or anybody has a right to tell somebody who they can or can't love. And I think this is a civil-rights issue. And I think the right thing to do is let the voters decide."
