Former Miss California Carrie Prejean
will address attendees at the Value Voters Summit, the annual
three-day meeting of social conservatives. Prejean will speak on the
opening day of the conference, Friday, September 18.
The Value Voters Summit is sponsored by
Tony Perkin's Family Research Council (FRC), an ardent opponent of
gay and lesbian rights.
Prejean, 22, became an overnight
Christian celebrity after she denounced gay marriage because of her
religious upbringing during the Miss USA contest in April and aligned
herself with Maggie Gallagher's anti-gay marriage group the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM).
The controversy spun out of control
when openly gay blogger Perez Hilton, the judge who asked Prejean her
thoughts on gay marriage, posted a nasty video on his website
PerezHilton.com where he says, “She gave the worst answer in
pageant history. She lost because she's a dumb bitch, OK?”
Social conservatives cheered when
Prejean argued that she was denied the crown because she refused to
back down from her religious beliefs.
“[I lost] because I had spoken from
my heart, for my beliefs and for my God,” Prejean said on NBC's
Today Show. “It's not about being politically correct, for
me, it's about being biblically correct.”
Miss USA Executive Director Keith Lewis
fired Prejean after the gay marriage controversy died down. He said
it was because she missed several appearances. Prejean is fighting
the dismissal; in a lawsuit filed two weeks ago, she accuses pageant
officials of libel, slander and religious discrimination.
The controversy launched Prejean into a
social conservative celebrity, with some supporters urging her to run
for elected office.
The Value Voters Summit did not
disclose the topic of her speech, but it's safe to assume it will
include a lively discussion of her views on gay marriage and the Miss
USA controversy.