A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Perry vs. Schwarzenegger lawyer David Boies tells the Wall Street Journal today that his side will rest their case tomorrow.
"We're pleased with the way it has gone," said David Boies, an attorney for the gay couples who want to wed. He said he set out to prove that marriage was an important right, that gays were harmed by being denied that right and that marriage wouldn't be hurt by extending it to same-sex couples. "We've proven all three of those," he said. Judge Vaughn Walker will decide whether the 2008 voter initiative that limited marriage to a man and a woman codified discrimination or protected a legitimate state interest. This is the first federal challenge to state gay-marriage bans. Defense lawyer Andrew Pugno said his side would present evidence from experts that traditional definitions of marriage between heterosexual couples have special benefit for children and for society.
The bigots are expected to present a short defense as four of their six witnesses have withdrawn over claims that violent homosexuals will attack their families if they do.
The Prop 8 trial continued this week and we kept up our daily coverage and live multi-source Twitter feed. That wasn't the only major story this week though. Check out some of the great posts we ran this week:
Subject: Stop the Hostile Takeover of the Constitution
Yesterday, by a single vote, the conservative majority in the Supreme Court staged a hostile takeover of American democracy on behalf of corporations.
Alternatives like public financing can help a little, but no matter how many tax payer dollars the government uses to try to offset corporate influence it will never be enough to compete with the bottomless coffers of corporations. For this reason and many more, we must amend the Constitution.
As you may know, People For the American Way has spent many years fighting against destructive amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Right Wing around issues like flag burning, school prayer and banning gay marriage, (you remember those) so our decision to support an amendment to the Constitution in this instance was not taken lightly. As you also know, People For the American Way has spent almost 30 years fighting hard for freedom of speech. But yesterday's decision is a perversion of the First Amendment and a departure from over 100 years of established legal precedent. The very foundation of our democracy could depend on our ability to overturn it.
"We are putting discrimination against gays and lesbians on trial. We are showing what the human costs of that discrimination are," said David Boies, one of the lawyers representing the pro-gay-marriage side. "Every citizen has the right to decide for themselves what is moral, but no group of citizens has the right to ...discriminate against a minority."
Cindy McCain, the wife of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, has posed for an ad endorsing pro-gay marriage forces in California.
Her husband responded by having his staff issue a statement.
Senator McCain respects the views of members of his family. The Senator chaired the effort to successfully pass Arizona Proposition 102, the Marriage Protection Amendment, and his opposition to gay marriage remains the same. Senator McCain believes the sanctity of marriage is only defined as between one man and one woman.
The first Mrs. McCain was unavailable for comment.
Calling it an "explosive afternoon" the Courage Campaign's Prop 8 live blog reported late today that according to documents revealed to the court, the Mormon Church labored hard behind the scenes to cover-up their involvement in the campaign. That's not surprise to any of us, but it's the first time physical evidence has been produced to substantiate this.
For example, one letter indicated that the LDS church had identified a volunteer for the campaign in every single zip code. This was a church document that was in the hands of a Prop 8 campaign official, and thus was discoverable. Andy Pugno, the general council for ProtectMarriage.com tried his darnedest to get Judge Walker to exclude it, but failed. From Rick’s liveblog: Pugno: Objects because document will be revealing. Judge: Not to make light of this, but the reason people want to produce documents is that they are revealing. Boutrous: It’s from an outsider to the core group. We are attempting to show the level of coordination with groups that Protect Marriage says were not even affiliated with the campaign. This is perhaps the most explosive bit of all, from a document between the LDS Church and the campaign:
With respect to Prop. 8 campaign, key talking points will come from campaign, but cautious, strategic, not to take the lead so as to provide plausible deniability or respectable distance so as not to show that church is directly involved.
Get that? The LDS Church intentionally worked to hide behind the scenes to disguise their involvement in the public realm. The LDS Church is well aware that the general public does not have the most favorable opinion of them. Attention on their involvement could have hurt their cause, namely passing Prop 8.
The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus will conduct a tour of concerts through the heartland of Proposition 8 country in central California as part of an outreach program. Via press release:
The three-part tour will kick off at the end of January with concerts in Redding and Chico, continue in May with concerts in Fresno and Bakersfield, and end in July with a concert in Tracy. For chorus member Bud Dillon, the tour means coming home. Born and raised in Redding, Bud has a special understanding of the importance of the concerts. "So many people only hear about gay men within the context of heated controversy. The Freedom Tour will help to change that in an incredibly entertaining way. Nobody leaves our concerts without a huge smile on their face!" “It's simple." Witherington added. “We believe to accept us, you have to know us. So we tell our story through our music. Our message is one of coming together and recognizing those things we have in common.”
The chorus will perform a new original number called We Are Coming Out, which was written by JMG reader Sean Chapin.
Box Turtle Bulletin reports that Uganda MP David "Kill Gays" Behati has been disinvited from next month's National Prayer Breakfast, where President Obama is scheduled to speak. Via Advocate:
Ambassador Richard Swett, a spokesman for the breakfast, confirmed that Bahati was no longer allowed to come to the event, scheduled for February 4. He added, "The National Prayer Breakfast is an organization that builds bridges of understanding between all peoples, religions and beliefs and has never advocated the sentiments expressed in Mr. Bahati’s legislation.” Early reports from the Monitor newspaper in Uganda said that Bahati had planned to go to the even, and make a speech. The organization that puts on the National Prayer Breakfast is the Fellowship Foundation, also known as the Family, an evangelical Christian group linked to the development of the "kill the gays" bill.
Today SF Mayor Gavin Newsom talks to Maureen O'Dowd about leaving politics and his disappointment with President Obama on gay marriage.
“Oh, I can’t get in trouble here,” Newsom said with a playful wince. “I want him to succeed. But I am very upset by what he’s not done in terms of rights of gays and lesbians. I understand it tactically in a campaign, but at this point I don’t know. There is some belief that he actually doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage. But it’s fundamentally inexcusable for a member of the Democratic Party to stand on the principle that separate is now equal, but only on the basis of sexual orientation. We’ve always fought for the rights of minorities and against the whims of majorities.” He said the promise of Obama sparking an “organic movement” has faded and “there’s a growing discontent and lack of enthusiasm that I worry about. He should just stand on principle, put this behind him and move on.”
Newsom abruptly gave up his bid for California governor last fall.
The American Foundation For Equal Rights sends us these video depositions made by two Perry vs. Schwarzenegger defendants who later dropped off the witness list rather than face the "violent wrath of vicious homofascists" were the trial to be televised.
The Olson/Boies legal team today introduced into evidence videos of the depositions of Paul Nathanson, Ph.D. and Katherine Young, Ph.D., who are among the experts dropped by the defendants from their witness list. In the videos, Nathanson and Young make several statements that are harmful to the defendants’ case and that support the plaintiffs’ position. Both are professors at McGill University. They were questioned by David Boies.
Listening to both witnesses without knowing who they are, one would presume they were witnesses FOR the gay side, especially Paul Nathansan, who seems ready to explode into a glitter rainbow of unicorns and Hello Kitty at any moment. Please watch every minute of these clips, it's unbelievable.
A ABGLT - Associação Brasileira de Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais - é uma entidade de abrangência nacional que congrega 220 organizações congêneres e tem como objetivo a defesa e promoção da cidadania desses segmentos da população. A ABGLT também é atuante internacionalmente e tem status consultivo junto ao Conselho Econômico e Social da Organização das Nações Unidas.
Neste sentido a ABGLT vem a público manifestar o seu apoio às resoluções presentes no Programa Nacional de Direitos Humanos 3 (PNDH 3), recém-lançado pelo Governo Federal.
Compreendemos que os direitos sexuais de lésbicas, gays, bissexuais, travestis e transexuais (LGBT) são direitos humanos e por isso direitos fundamentais a serem respeitados em uma sociedade democrática.
Sabemos que, porém, o alcance da consolidação dessa democracia não se dará sem que exista o reconhecimento da importância que têm os espaços de construção de políticas públicas em conjunto com a sociedade civil.
O Programa não foi feito apenas pelo governo, mas democraticamente por milhões de brasileiros e brasileiras. Nós lésbicas, gays, bissexuais, travestis e transexuais (LGBT) participamos de em torno de 10 conferências - das mais de 50 que houve durante o governo atual - para contribuir para a elaboração do Programa Nacional de Direitos Humanos 3, incluindo a Conferência de Direitos Humanos, a Conferência LGBT, a Conferência da Igualdade Racial, a Conferência da Criança e do Adolescente, a Conferência de Saúde, a Conferência de Segurança Pública, a Conferência de Comunicação, a Conferência da Pessoa Idosa, entre outras.
Os processos das Conferências nos demonstram como é possível garantir, a partir da reunião dos mais diversos setores da sociedade civil em conjunto o poder público, a construção de políticas públicas para nosso país. Hoje vemos todo este trabalho e dedicação concretizados no Programa Nacional de Direitos Humanos 3..
Queremos referendar o apoio à busca da verdade sobre a ditadura militar. No mínimo precisamos saber a verdade, mas sem revanchismo. Devemos conhecer o passado para não repetir os mesmos erros.
Precisamos respeitar a autonomia das mulheres.
O Brasil ainda é um dos países que mais concentra renda e terra. Precisamos fazer uma reforma agrária democrática, com a participação das comunidades envolvidas.
Os meios de comunicação em nosso país precisam sim da participação cidadã da sociedade, para garantir que todos os meios de comunicação, sem distinção, respeitem os direitos humanos. O Brasil está sendo um exemplo de democracia. Nossa nação cresceu e está ganhando reconhecimento mundialmente. Aumentaram nossos índices de desenvolvimento humano em todos os institutos e a promoção dos direitos humanos nesse contexto é fundamental.
Convocamos a sociedade para que apoie o Programa Nacional de Direitos Humanos 3, porém sabemos que projetos, planos e programas sempre podem ser dialogados e aprimorados. Isto é democracia.
No final das contas, o Programa não deve ser deste ou daquele governo, desde ou daquele partido político e deste ou daquele grupo. Deve ser de todo/as, e todos/as devem participar democraticamente para aprimorá-lo, implementá-lo, monitorá-lo e avaliá-lo.
O Programa também deve ser assumido pelo Estado, afinal os planos, projetos e programas não devem ser só do governo, e sim do Estado Brasileiro.
Desta forma, unimos as nossas vozes às diversas da sociedade que hoje estão em defesa das resoluções presentes no PNDH 3 democraticamente construídas no conjunto da sociedade civil brasileira.
A ABGLT luta e continuará lutando para garantir que as vozes de lésbicas, gays, bissexuais, travestis e transexuais, assim como de todos seus defensores(as), sejam sempre ouvidas e respeitadas, pois acreditamos que só assim poderemos garantir uma sociedade democrática como um direito de todas e todos.
Toni Reis Presidente ABGLT - Associação Brasileira de Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais
Perry vs. Schwarzenegger lawyer David Boies tells the Wall Street Journal today that his side will rest their case tomorrow. 
