Same-sex, whole-milk marriage: 50 Shades of Gay

[River]

Surely someone will Twit this trial.

Yes, it is being twitted (Twitted?) live by the American Foundation for Equal Rights (the organization that brought the suit).

American Foundation for Equal Rights

Um, I might by wrong, but I think the verb for posting things on Twitter is "tweet".

[Frelga]

Yeah, but that's just too twee.

[vison]

A transcript has been posted elsewhere. I find it weird.

[Primula Baggins]

Link?

[Hachimitsu]

I find it really strange and confusing. *Le sigh*

[Primula Baggins]

So do I, Wilma.

About the stuff you asked about in the other thread: I'll try to find some links for you tonight, if I get time.

[Frelga]

YouTube broadcasts would humanize issue

If the Supreme Court decides as early as today to continue blocking the federal court from broadcasting the trial on YouTube, advocates of same-sex marriage will lose a major part of the public education campaign they hoped to gain from the internationally watched trial.

...

"People need to see and hear these stories," said Rick Jacobs, chair of the Courage Campaign, the liberal online organization whose campaign inspired nearly all of the 138,542 people who urged the federal court to air the trial.

I agree that this is the primary motive, rather than any purported fear of harassment, which after all can go both ways. It helps the opponents of gay marriage to keep the issue theoretical, to paint the same-sex couples as "the other", the alien. It helps the proponents of gay marriage to bring real, sympathetic people and show how this issue affects their lives.

[vison]

Wilma, try this:

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/23376

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Judge being gay a nonissue during Prop. 8 trial

Unfortunately, it won't be a non-issue. If he rules that Prop 8 is unconstitutional, you know that opponents of same-sex marriage will make it a BIG issue.

[Inanna]

You're right - and I wonder if the expected bias can even work against supporters of same-sex marriage.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Judge Walker is going to pretty extraordinary lengths to justify his decision, whichever way he goes. Closing arguments for the trial have finally been scheduled for June 16, and he has submitted a series of questions that he wants both sides to answer in their closing arguments. You can read more at Judge Walker’s Questions for Closing Statements. It's pretty fascinating stuff, though some may find it a bit esoteric.

[Lidless]

Nice link. The posted comments were informative as well.

Many years from now I think the majority will all look back at how the law is today, and be saddened and ashamed, just as we are now over segregation.

[axordil]

Nice link. The posted comments were informative as well.

Many years from now I think the majority will all look back at how the law is today, and be saddened and ashamed, just as we are now over segregation.

Or at least how most of us are now over segregation...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Nice link. The posted comments were informative as well.

I agree. It's nice -- and fairly rare -- to find helpful, straightforward commentary on the internet, particularly coming from someone with a vested interest.

Many years from now I think the majority will all look back at how the law is today, and be saddened and ashamed, just as we are now over segregation.

Or, for an even more on-point example, integrated marriages.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

Wow. Now that guy should be nominated to the SCOTUS, none of the vapid political appointees of the last 12 years.

Not to say they all were vapid, but I'm sure each of us could pick at least one person who was put into the nominating process, whether or not the person made it through, that made you scratch your head and say "what were they thinking coming up with that one?"

[Ellienor]

There was a news item recently that showed that "children raised in lesbian households were psychologically well-adjusted and had fewer behavioral problems than their peers."

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/10 ... udy-finds/

I think that pretty much destroys one of the stronger arguments against same-sex marriage (at least as far as for lesbians), i.e., the argument that "a mother and father are better."

I'm not sure exactly what the peer group they measured against is, though. Should go back and read the article in full.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Unfortunately, since that study was funded by several different lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy groups, it will not be accepted as valid, even if in fact the funding sources did not influence how the study was conducted.

[yovargas]

I've long said that the more important debate isn't whether a mother and father are "better" than a same-sex couple, it's whether a same-sex couple would be better then foster homes.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Agreed. And I am equally suspicious of a study saying that lesbian parents are "better" than straight parents as I am of a study saying that straight parents are "better" than gay or lesbian parents. I think it depends on the individual couples, whether gay or straight.

In any event, relating this back to the Prop 8 trial, one of the most interesting questions that Judge Walker asked was the one directed to the proponents of Prop 8 that said that even if evidence showed that children do best when raised by their married, biological mother and father (which this study contradicts), and that therefore it was in the state's interest to encourage children to be raised by their married biological mother and father where possible, how does Prop 8 actual promote that interest? That is really the crux of the case, because at the very least the proponents have to show that there is rational basis for treating gay couples differently than straight couples. If the proponents can't satisfactorily answer this question (and I question whether they can), they should lose.

[Lidless]

Surely the raising of children has nothing to do with the debate.