Opposite Marriage
What a difference a word makes. After gossip blogger and pageant judge Perez Hilton asked Carrie Prejean whether she thinks every state should legalize gay marriage during the 2009 Miss USA competition, the Miss California contestant delivered a rambling, inarticulate response reminiscent of Miss South Carolina's hilariously bad geography gaffe. "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." Despite that last line, her answer prompted a shouting match in the pageant lobby. Afterwards, the Washington Post dubbed her term for marriage between members of the opposite sex a "classic phrase," if an infamous one.