Forget Carrie Prejean. it’s time to meet her “replacement” – Lauren Ashley. She’s currently representing Beverly Hills in the Miss California USA pageant, and like Prejean she’s not too fond of the gay marriage issue.

Recently the 23 year old beauty pageant contestant told Fox, “The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman. In Leviticus it says, ‘If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.’”

Yet another homophobe wheeling out tired interpretations of Leviticus quotes.

Meanwhile according to Salon.com the city of Beverly Hills is not impressed about being associated with Ashley.

Beverly Hills Mayor Nancy Krasne told the Los Angeles Times, “We are dismayed by any potential association [between Ashley and] the city of Beverly Hills, which has a long history of tolerance and respect.”

To make matters more bizarre, Ashley doesn’t even live in Beverly Hills, but resides in Pasadena. Apparently contestants can choose which city they want to represent. This week the city of Beverly Hills issued a statement saying that it “does not sponsor a beauty pageant and has no association with Miss California USA. As such, there should be no individual claiming the title of Miss Beverly Hills.”

Perhaps Ashley is hoping for the same notoriety that Prejean gained. Meanwhile, the president of the National Organisation for Marriage, Maggie Gallagher, heartily endorsed Ashley’s views, telling Fox, “I’m not surprised that Miss Beverly Hills, Lauren Ashley, opposes gay marriage – after all, 45% of young Californians voted for Prop. 8, as did 7 million Californians generally.”

Jimmy Nguyen recently wrote about the issue in his column in The Advocate, asking if religious beliefs and an antigay platform are the new way to get your name known on the pageant circuit.

“This makes me wonder whether we are seeing the start of a new trend with this fiery formula — beauty queens who cite their religious beliefs to oppose marriage equality in order to gain (or extend) 15 minutes of fame. Perhaps we should give this trend a nifty moniker. How about ‘Sashes Against Same-Sex Marriage’? ‘Beauty Queens Against the Queens’? Or ‘Crowns Opposed to Marriage Equality’? Before you know it, a new organisation could emerge with some fierce acronyms.”