Perry v. Schwartzenegger, the federal trial concerning California's Proposition 8, resumed today after a week of compelling testimony showing how marriage equality positively affects society and how denying marriage to gay couples harms them personally, socially, and economically.
I encourage you to follow liveblogging of the trial at Prop8TrialTracker.com (thank you Courage Campaign!) and you can read a round-up of the first week's testimony here.
If you prefer not to read streaming commentary on the trial, you can watch it on YouTube. Yes, you read that right: even though the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Judge Vaughn Walker's order to allow the trial to be recorded and broadcast when the supporters of Proposition 8 claimed their witnesses would be afraid to testify before cameras, you can still see a broadcast.
How? Voilà! It's MarriageTrial.com, a volunteer re-enactment project created by freelance journalist and filmmaker John Ireland. He and his intrepid volunteer professionals now filming "episodes" based on transcripts of the first week of the trial, due to be posted at MarriageTrial and YouTube sometime tomorrow. They have resolved to bring a timely visual document of the trial to the public each day through January 29th as a substitute for the kiboshed broadcast.
John, you are a genius.
Ten witnesses established that Prop 8 not only negatively impacts gay families, civil rights, and the economy, but also perpetrates that harm against gays for no good reason. Marriage equality causes no discernable societal harm, as those who defend Prop 8 aver--a key argument in this case. I'm looking forward to seeing the reenacted testimony of the plaintiff's first expert Harvard's Nancy Cott, Ph.D, author of Public Vows (a unique book on the history of marriage in the U.S., and one of my favorite reference works.) If you ever thought marriage was solely for the creation of legitimate children--as Prop8 proponents claim--Dr. Cott's testimony will make you think again....even in simulation.
There's a reason marriage equality opponents fought so hard to have the broadcast shut down: they don't want America to see how flimsy and homophobic their arguments are. Four of the six witnesses who were scheduled to defend Prop 8 have bowed out, even though the trial will not be broadcast. The Yes on 8 forces say it was because the witnesses feared retaliation, but "the reason they withdrew those expert witnesses was not because of cameras, it was because they did not want to subject them to cross examination by David Boies," said Theodore Boutrous, No on Prop 8.
The denial of broadcast by the U.S. Supreme Court was a blow to transparency in civil rights proceedings, and was a victory for the anti-equality forces who didn't want the public to witness this compelling testimony in favor of same-sex marriage. John Ireland has devised a brilliant solution to this, and I hope you will support marriage equality by spreading the word and watching some or all of this powerful and historic trial.
You can also show your support by making a donation to help keep the actors in bagels and coffee here via PayPal (I made mine!)
Until next time, a sweet and long life to you all.
Elizabeth Oakes, National Wedding and Marriage Examiner, Examiner.com
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Comments
It's tiresome, isn't it? This constant unwillingness of folks to be educated out of prejudices... thanks for keeping us up to date on what's going on... and what a clever man! Great article! (as always!)
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