WHY NOT?

Examiner, 28-Jul-2009: Howard Stern put the reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza to the ultimate test on Tuesday morning’s edition of The Howard Stern Show. It wasn’t the traditional “take your top off” or “swallow the kielbasa” test that Howard Stern usually subjects his most beautiful guests to.

Howard Stern took a cue from Perez Hilton and asked Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza if she would support the legalization of gay marriage. Mendoza danced around the issue a bit at first. When pressed further, Dayana Mendoza stated that she had several close gay friends in her life that she would like to see be able to spend the rest of their lives with the people that they loved.

Howard Stern cornered her on what has apparently become the most compelling pageant question of our generation: “Should gay marriage be legal?”

“Why not?” responded Dayana Mendoza.

Dayana Mendoza joked that if her stance on gay marriage conflicted with her Miss Universe title, she only has about a month in her reign anyway.

“Bravo!” called out Howard Stern Show openly gay guest announcer George Takei. George Takei (better known to Star Trek fans as the original “Sulu”) was one of the estimated 18,000 Californians to marry a same sex partner during the brief legalization of same sex marriage in California last year.