Here we are in a new week and four more days of testimony in for the Federal Prop 8 trial. As of 8:49 PST proceedings have not yet begun but that give me plenty of time to get todays links up. By the way...they have a great thread on the Courage Campaigns liveblog asking everyone to introduce themselves...drop in and say hi!
Whats in the line up for today?:
Jerry Sanders, the current Republican Mayor and former Police Chief of the City of San Diego who is the father of a lesbian daughter. He will testify about his decision, as Mayor, to support the City of San Diego's participation in an amicus brief advocating against the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage and why he concluded supporting marriage equality was and is in the best interest of the local government and community. City Attorney Dennis Herrera will conduct the direct examination of Mayor Sanders.
M.V. Lee Badgett, Ph.D., a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who will testify about the private harms caused by Prop. 8 and the impact of same-sex marriage on the marriages of different-sex couples
Ryan Kendall, a gay man who will testify about the "conversation therapy" he underwent in his youth and how he has been affected by discrimination
The usual suspects:
Good as You Twitter Feed
Pam's House Blend Twitter Feed
The Advocates Twitter feed
Courage Campaign Liveblog (The Trial Tracker)
Firedog Lake's Liveblog
P.S.....We are supposed to see a reenactment of Last weeks trial events posted to youtube today. I will post it here if/when that happens.
I like the advocate feed. Have been following it since you pointed it out.
ReplyDeleteI am just beginning to read the trial tracker, admittedly a little out of order. And ... I am getting excited.
ReplyDeleteThe judge seems smart, right? He can see through the falsified numbers and the inflated hypotheses?
I am starting on day 1 now, and am getting a little scared about this Blankenhorn character. How do we know they don't have some secret weapon?
Um, and I don't even want to mention this, but, is it possible the judge might receive a bribe, or a death threat?
Something tells me that if the judge received a bribe or death threat he'd report it immediately. Chances are security round him is pretty tight already because of how high-profile this trial is, so any death threats would probably only confirm that he needs that hightened security. Also, any bribe would have to be HUGE - big enough to risk ending his career over, because that's what would happen if he was found out. I wouldn't consider either to have an effect on the outcome of the trial.
ReplyDeleteThe outcome of the trial would be decided in SCOTUS, so there’s no point to threaten or bribe Walker. As for SCOTUS, everybody knows they are mostly as bigoted and prejudiced as American people they represent, so proponents of Prop-H8 are probably sure SCOTUS will rule in their favor.
ReplyDeleteWe have to make a great case, excellent one, with no loopholes whatsoever, in order to show that no prejudice can be upheld by bigoted SCOTUS judges.
P.S. I wonder am I the only one who can’t help weeping while reading the testimonies? I can’t believe that after this kind of testimony someone can rule against us!
I will show my ignorance. What is "Scotus"?
ReplyDeleteI was reading about this judge, and saw he helped the US Olympic committee sue an athlete for hosting his own gay olympics, but in recent years ruled against a free speech lawsuit in which someone was made to take a sign down about a "natural family", saying it discriminates.
He also ruled against parents who claimed their religious rights were at risk because their son was taught about gay marriage in school.
So, we may stand a chance with him, but I haven't got any idea who "SCOTUS" is and what you say about them scares me.
How can bigots ever be judges?!
I am not weeping reading what I have so far (only day six, and halfway through day one). I am, though, getting agitated, and gritting my teeth, and making fists.
It's hard to explain. I stifle the hurt with uncontrollable anger.
It seems so blaringly obvious that this is discrimination and an injustice, and a theocracy being forced on all of us.
What witnesses is their side going to call in?
The only comforting thing right now, even though the testimonies and evidence should grant us a shoe-in, is that we have a crafty lawyer on our side.
My apologies, but I feel that Gore was the true president.
@ ladybugmagic
ReplyDeleteSCOTUS is the Supreme Court of the United States.
As for weeping, well, day two was hard (about injustices against homosexuals throughout the history), and in day five that Chinese lesbian woman story was kinda emotional.
As for Gore, I completely agree! I was furious when this strange election system made Bush the President, when, in fact, the majority of people voted for Gore! And these people are talking about real democracy? Huh! I doubt Gore is (or at least was at the time) pro-gay, but maybe with him things would be different.
@ K!r!lleXXI
ReplyDeleteI am toggling between day one, and looking at the biographies of the supreme court justices, trying to play with probability.
Forgive my ignorance, but, how do you know they are a bunch of bigots?
I know little about our judicial system, so I don’t even know if the vote has to be unanimous to overturn prop 8, or just a majority.
From the government website, it lists their birthdates, cities, education, and who nominated them.
How can we even assess who will vote which way?
Of the nine justices, 3 were nominated by Bush, so I am basing it as if it were Bush, and count their votes against us.
2 were nominated by Reagan, another two against us, probably, which already yields the majority.
Bush was no “nuc-u-lar” scientist, so it is possible that he did not strategize too much when nominating them, but his handlers/advisers may have.
Is there any way to venture a guess?
And here is the prop 8 obsession starting all over again….
I am mid-page on day one (I take a long time to read). I really like what Professor Cott is saying. She is a great witness, and really knows what to say, spot-on.
@ladybugmagic
ReplyDeleteHow do I know they are a bunch of bigots? Well, first of all, I think not all of them support the traditional definition of marriage. Four of them voted for making this trial public. Who are who? I’m not an expert, but there are people who know positions of every Supreme Court judges, who study their work and their voting history, so, from what I’ve heard, there are 4 bigots who would be defending traditional marriage really fiercely (especially, Scalia — he will NEVER vote in our favor); then we have 4 other judges who would probably vote for marriage equality; and then there is Kennedy who’s a wild card — he may vote for or against us just as well.
You know, it’s funny because this situation repeats what’s happening in the American society: half of all people are against same-sex marriage, half are pro, and there are some of them who are the wild card, but usually they become anti-gay because of “protect the children” propaganda.
If you’re that interested, you can search the web, I’m sure it’s easy to find out which judge is most likely to support us, and which is not. At least those people have some kind of expertise to assess that.
Yeah, Cott was great! really great! It was an eye opener for me, some of the things she said. First three days were full of important information about very important stuff! Day 4 was about economics (boring).
And I’m behind on my reading — I’m still in the beginning of day 6 :(
@ K!r!lleXXI
ReplyDeleteI might try doing some internet searches, to see if we can predict the verdict, but putting so much anticipation in it creates hope, and sometimes, that deflates into despair if things go the opposite direction. :0(
Today, I weeped. In public, almost embarassingly. I was dropping someone off, and my passenger was listening to classical music. For some reason, the music reminded me of the evolution of prop 8.
I was unaware of it, at first. All I knew was that Ellen and Portia got married, and I thought California was a cool place to be.
My gay coworker had told me about it, and then I started hearing the ads, and seeing the "free speech" signs in the streets.
I went on sacbee and latimes and fueded with almost illiterate people, because their stupid logic (or lack thereof) was reason for them to do what they did.
I saw a video on youtube when the ban was originally overturned. It showed a bunch of people screaming in joy that it was the best day of their life. They were smiling.
And beaming.
And then prop 8.
All I thought today, as I did throughout the prop's term, was, "How can you take someone's smile away?". It's akin to setting a kitty-cat on fire.
You just don't do it. It just makes no sense unless you are deeply disturbed, or just a hateful bag of douche.
About James Dobson - I was going down two avenues of research, either looking to contact defamation/discrimination attorneys, or personal injury attorneys, or even someone along the line of Erin Brokovich. (Not sure if she is friend or foe to the prop 8 cause).
I was reading one of the court transcripts, and someone's comment said that Focus on The Family will be running an anti-abortion ad on superbowl sunday.
I wonder if they will use their normal scare tactics with pictures of unviable fetus parts, or, if they will say something a little less shock and awe, like, "If you need someone to talk to ...."
I read that Dobson splintered off and developed his own hate group.
Sigh - so much drama.
ladybugmagic - marshmallowhugs.ws
Wait, Erin Brockovich is a real person? :0
ReplyDeleteYes, lol. After working for that lawyer they depicted in the movie, she took the bar and became a lawyer herself.
ReplyDelete