Women in Christianity the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work in "bringing help to suffering humanity". Much admired by Pope John Paul II, she was beatified in 2003, just six years after her death. Many Christian women and religious have been prominent advocates in social policy debates—as with American nun Helen Prejean, a Sister of Saint Joseph of Medaille, who is a prominent campaigner against the Death Penalty and was the inspiration for the Hollywood film "Dead Man Walking". Linda Woodhead states that, "Of the many threats that Christianity has to face in modern times, gender equality is one of the
Carrie Prejean Prejean's answer to her final question during the pageant became the subject of controversy. Prejean received nationwide attention over her response to a question about same-sex marriage during the 2009 Miss USA pageant. Prejean was asked by pageant judge Perez Hilton whether she believed every U.S. state should legalize same-sex marriage. She responded: The media attention intensified after Hilton added a video blog post to his website, and made comments there and elsewhere, disparaging Prejean and her answer to the question. Hilton called her a "dumb bitch" and stated: "She gave an awful, awful answer that alienated so many people."