Aug 31 2009
Carrie Prejean Sues for Religious Discrimination
Carrie Prejean has filed a lawsuit claiming Shanna Moakler, and other pageant officials, forced her out because of her religious beliefs.
Prejean filed the suit in L.A. County Superior Court, accusing Moakler and Keith Lewis of religious discrimination, defamation, public disclosure of private facts, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
In her suit Prejean 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."
A rep for Moakler said on her behalf:
"Ms. Moakler has not yet been served with Carrie Prejean’s lawsuit. However, on Ms. Moakler’s behalf, I can say unequivocally that Ms. Prejean’s lawsuit is without merit. More importantly, as 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. Ms. Moakler strenuously denies that she did anything wrong and looks forward to proving that in a court of law."
Keith Lewis said in a statement:
"It appears that suits from both sides are now inevitable against the other."
"I would guess Carrie sees it as a chance to get publicity for her upcoming book because in the interviews I have seen, she talks about the suit and the book in the same breath."
"We have no problem with her selling lots of books, considering in the current situation we could stand to profit from every copy she sells."
"For us, it has never been about her beliefs and we have always just wanted to move on."
"But it seems like Carrie really has nothing new to talk about or anything new in her life so the impression is she just keeps looking for ways to rehash her position as a victim because of her onstage answer."
While we agree with Lewis when he says Prejean needs to move on, and points out the fact that Prejean is still trying to milk this one controversy for as much money as she can, we also know from public statements that both Lewis and Moakler strongly denounced Prejean’s religious opinion when regarding same sex marriage. Since the pageant officials only began to show their disapproval of Prejean after she gave her opinion on same sex marriage, and not before, gives Prejean’s case the credibility and merit it needs to have a fair chance at succeeding in court. We’ll have to wait and see if the case is settled out of court, or what is decided in court.
