Federal Prop 8 Gay Marriage Lawsuit to Hammer Point that Being Gay is Not a Choice

While California's gay rights advocates are split between a 2010 and 2012 repeal effort, you've still got the Olson-Boies federal Perry v. Schwarzenegger lawsuit that's attempting to overturn Prop 8's damage. The means to the ends may differ, but both plans will live and die by strategy. Say what you will about the ballot repeal's strategy being led by the same people who bungled No On 8, but when it comes to Olson-Boies, is their strategy wholly flawed? In order to convince a federal audience that Prop 8 is unconstitutional by way of the 14th Amendment, Olson-Boies and their clients (under the umbrella Alliance Defense Fund) plan to bring in a string of expert witnesses to testify that being gay is not a choice; that it's decided by biology; and it is not a disorder. How come? Because if they can prove we've had no choice in the matter — so the thinking goes — it'll be easier to convince a judge that, like skin color, sexuality cannot be the basis for discrimination. The only problem with that? Federal protections are not always tied to biology and things we don't have choices about. Just look at religion: We're technically free to adopt any set of beliefs we want, change them at any time, or keep the same ones forever. But that choice remains constitutionally protected. So to go to great lengths to prove that sexuality is not a choice (and counter the defense's likely argument that it is), the Los Angeles Times argues Olson-Boies' strategy risks levying an unnecessary burden of proof on its own claim. Full Story from Queerty

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