Tag: Helen Zia
By Eden James
The American Foundation for Equal Rights, the organization that assembled the legal team challenging Prop 8 in court, has released a summary of the first week of the trial.
If you’ve only been able to catch bits and pieces of the proceedings, this should help you get caught up relatively quickly before the trial begins again on Tuesday morning.
Check it out:
PROP. 8 TRIAL FIRST WEEK ROUNDUP
Ten witnesses, including Kris Perry, Sandy Stier, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo and five eminent experts, clearly and convincingly demonstrated critical points in the federal trial on the unconstitutionality of Prop. 8 during its opening week:
• Marriage is vitally important in American society;
• By denying gay men and lesbians the right to marry, Proposition 8 causes grievous harm to the plaintiffs and other gay men and lesbians throughout California, and adds yet another chapter to the long history of discrimination they have suffered;
• Proposition 8 perpetrates irreparable, immeasurable and discriminatory harm for no good reason.
DISCRIMINATORY MOTIVATIONS OF PROP. 8
The court also viewed video footage from the deposition of William Tam. Tam is one of the five Official Proponents of Prop. 8, and as such was personally responsible for putting it on the ballot and for intervening in this case to take over the defense of the initiative.
The video footage of his deposition included statements from Tam such as this one, from a pro-Prop. 8 email he wrote: “They lose no time in pushing the gay agenda — after legalizing same-sex marriage, they want to legalize prostitution. What will be next? On their agenda list is: legalize having sex with children.” (more…)
January 17, 2010
By Julia Rosen
Wow! Can you believe it’s only been week one of the trial?
The plaintiffs have not made it through all of their witnesses yet, so we have quite a ways to go. It’s a long weekend remember, so we won’t be back liveblogging the proceedings until Tuesday.
As is tradition, below is the daily summary of the liveblogging in chronological order. Remember that the categories over on the right column are a useful way to navigate through the site, for example to find all of the liveblog postings, or the daily summaries. (more…)
January 15, 2010
By Rick Jacobs
Helen Zia’s emotionally powerful testimony continues.
Zia Reads from Prop. 8 website:
Homosexuality linked to pedophilia. Studies show that homo is linked to pedophilia…link to more (from a Prop. 8 website).
Lawyer: You found this hurtful?
Z: Yes.
L: I’d like to move this into evidence
Prop. 8 Lawyer: No indication that this is official Protect Marriage document.
Judge: YOU made a 403 objection; I’ll reserve until your cross.
Z: Leah Shigimura is my soul mate in life. I love her. She’s the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. She’s the most important person to me. Met her in 1982 (I think). Both involved in civil rights effort around hate crime against Detroit man Vincent Chin. I lived in Detroit, but we met here in SF. We started dating many years later. (more…)
January 15, 2010
By Rick Jacobs
Finally on redirect of Dr. Michael Lamb.
G: Do you need a break?
L: See the end in sight. My eye is on the door.
G: Let’s get in a time machine and go back from before that cross all the way back to when you first said that kids are better off with a father, back before I was born.
[LOTS OF LAUGHTER]
Judge: (Laughing) He’s your witness!
G: Has fatherless family term ever included lesbian mothers?
L: Some, because we want to see what happens without men, but in main it’s children being raised by hetero women without hetero father/man. (more…)
January 15, 2010
