Great Video Summary of the Marriage Equality Fight from KQED

In Other Words is back with another Word of the Week–the series that explains the news behind the buzz. This week we decided to give you the basics of the Proposition 8 trial. Full Story & Video from KQED

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CA: Prop 8 Trial Update - Gay Marriage Increases Health & Revenue

Experts speaking before a trial on California's gay marriage ban have said that lifting it would make people healthier and generate more money for the state's economy. The federal trial is examining whether Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, is constitutional. Yesterday, San Francisco's chief economist Edmund Egan said that the city could see its economy boosted by millions if gay couples were allowed to marry. According to AFP, he argued that if more gay people married, they would increase school district revenues, real estate, payroll and sales taxes and would be more likely to be insured. Full Story from Pink News

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CA: Prop 8 Day Two Update

Most of the morning was taken up with the cross-examinatin and re-direct of Nancy Cott, a Harvard professor of history who is an expert witness for the plaintiffs. Next up was George Chauncey, a history professor from Yale University who specializes in LGBT history in the United States. He’s the author of a number of books, including Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today’s Debate Over Gay Equality (Basic, 2004). Now, I’m pretty well-versed in this subject, but Chauncey’s testimony was still intriguing (at least as reported on Twitter, Prop. 8 Trial Tracker, and Firedog Lake). Chauncey gave a whirlwind tour through centuries of oppression: sodomy laws that were only applied to gay people, or that continued to be applied to gay people long after they stopped being enforced for heterosexuals; the McCarthy hearings, which focused as much on gays as on Communists; military discharges that left people unemployable; marginalization in low-paying jobs. Full Story from Kel's Hot Flash: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/hotflash/blogs/post?oid=1353022

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To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

CA: Prop 8 Campaign Patterned After Anita Bryant Crusade, Historian Says

Attorneys challenging the California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage painted the “Yes on 8” campaign as a modern day copycat of Anita Bryant’s late 1970s campaign to “Save the Children.” Through testimony by gay history scholar George Chauncey of Yale University, the plaintiffs’ legal team discussed, in U.S. district court, the creation of unsubstantiated stereotyping of gay men as child molesters by police and news media around the country between the 1930s and 1950s. And it was these stereotypes that former beauty pageant contestant and orange juice pitchwoman Anita Bryant exploited to turn public sentiment against anti-discrimination laws gays had been successful in passing in the 1970s. “The initial polling data showed there was actually a margin of support for anti-bias ordinances,” said Chauncey. So Bryant and her campaign, he said, “decided to focus on the consequences of allowing such laws –the effects on children.” Full Story from 365Gay: http://www.365gay.com/news/day-2-is-prop-8-like-the-anita-bryant-crusade/

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To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

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

Click here for gay marriage resources in California.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

CA: Supreme Court Sides With Anti Gay Forces Again, Temporarily Blocks Video of Prop 8 Trial

The camera-shy justices of the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a halt Monday to the planned video coverage of the San Francisco trial of California's Proposition 8, apparently concerned witnesses opposed to gay marriage could face harassment if they were shown on YouTube. It was the second time in three months the high court had intervened on behalf of defenders of “traditional marriage.” In October, the court issued an emergency order to prevent Washington state officials from putting online the names of 138,000 citizens who signed ballot petitions seeking to overturn a law giving gays and lesbians equal benefits. While the justices did not explain their action Monday, the high court's order may also reflect a deep-seated reluctance to permit TV coverage of a trial in federal court. The televised trial of the O.J. Simpson murder case in Los Angeles is still cited among the justices when the topic of cameras in the court arises. The federal judiciary had a policy of barring broadcast coverage of all trial courts. But last month, the independent-minded U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announced it would experiment with a “limited use” of cameras in its trial courts. For several years, the 9th Circuit has permitted TV coverage when it hears some high-profile appeals. Full Story from MyDesert.com: http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100112/NEWS01/1120308/1006/news01

Click here for gay marriage resources in California.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.