CA: Historians Testify on Marriage Equality in Prop 8 Trial

The trial of a legal challenge to Proposition 8 may decide whether same-sex couples get the chance to marry in California in the future, but on Tuesday it was all about history. Seeking to show that the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage is rooted in discrimination, lawyers for same-sex couples offered up two Ivy League historians who testified throughout the day on how Prop. 8 is part of a long tradition of denying gay couples equal rights and exposing them to campaigns of ridicule. The historians, whose credibility as independent experts came under immediate attack from Prop. 8 lawyers, testified in the second day of the first federal court trial in the nation to test the legality of a state's ban on the right of same-sex couples to wed. The trial resumes this morning before Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who is deciding a lawsuit filed on behalf of same-sex couples who argue that Prop. 8 violates federal equal protection rights. The question today is whether the trial will continue to unfold only before the spectators in the judge's courthouse here, or make it onto the Web via YouTube broadcast. Full Story from the Oakland Tribune: http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_14176490

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