Miss California's Civil Liberties

Most of us are pretty familiar with the infamous Carrie Prejean incident.  If not, you can read a short summary here.  Miss Prejean claims that the reason she lost the crown during the Miss America pagent was beacuse she openly disagreed with gay marriage. She said in response to a question regarding gay marriage asked by a gay man,  "I think it's great Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage . . . I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense." Miss Prejean could have said her statement in a more intelligent way, but her point, which is completely valid, still comes across.

She of course was not taken to court or severely punished for her statement, but nonetheless she was still scrutinized for it.  The statment she was made against gay marriage was not only unexpected from the mouth of a young beauty queen, but some felt it was also unethical. I read an interesting ariticle that discusses Miss California's ordeal. This author says that Prejean's claim that her right to free speech was violated is completely ridiculous.  He points out that, although she did take some heat for her words, that others were simply exerting their right to free speech.  Their argument was just disagreed with Prejean.  Was her right to free speech violated when she was stripped of the crown?  Perhaps if she had more eloquently stated her belief, would the public have had less of a reaction to her statement?