LGBT POV

At the Equality California gala Saturday night, EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors called political strategist Chad Griffin, board president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights,  a “hero” for bringing the historic successful federal constitutional challenge to Prop 8. On Aug. 4, District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declared Prop 8 unconstitutional but he subsequently imposed a six-day stay on his ruling – until Wednesday, Aug. 18 – to provide Prop 8 proponents time to file an appeal.  Walker’s decision to permanently enjoin enforcement of Prop 8 – and then grant a temporary stay created an incredible emotional roller-coaster Friday leaving many same sex couples who planned to marry in the lurch.

The Protect Marriage/Defendant-Interveners appeal is due Monday.

In his ruling, Judge Walker said he did not think the Prop 8 proponents had “standing” to bring an appeal in the 9^th Circuit, a position with which the plaintiffs’  attorneys agreed in their motion opposing an emergency stay filed Friday.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, an official government-defendant in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case, also filed a motion on Friday opposing a stay – the effect of which would prohibit same sex marriages from being legal in California while the lawsuit winds through the court system, presumably on its way to the US Supreme Court.  Brown’s filing reads in part:

“To the extent the decision of the Attorney General not to file an appeal has bearing on this Court’s decision of whether to grant a stay, however, the Attorney General will not be appealing the district court’s Order permanently enjoining the enforcement of Proposition 8.

For the foregoing reasons, the Attorney General respectfully requests that Appellant-Intervenors’ request for a stay pending appeal be denied.”

Over the weekend, a number of smart people discussed the appeals process, which Lambda Legal’s Jon Davidson laid out in great detail for LGBT POV last week. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times which read in part:

“As Walker explained Thursday, the defenders of Proposition 8 are not likely to prevail because they lack standing; also, it is impossible to see what “irreparable injury” will occur if there is not a stay of the injunction and same-sex couples are allowed to marry pending resolution of the appeal.

The result of all this is likely to be that gays and lesbians will be able to marry beginning Wednesday, when Walker’s temporary stay expires. There then will be consideration of the case, over the next couple of years, by the 9th Circuit and ultimately by the Supreme Court.”

And the incomparable New York Times Frank Rich wrote in a Saturday column that weaves together the death of AIDS “angel” Judith Dunnington Peabody and the work of plaintiffs’ attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies:

“Make no mistake about it: The Proposition 8 trial, Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision and the subsequent reaction to it (as much a non-reaction as anything else) constitute a high point in America’s history-long struggle to live up to its democratic ideals.”

A reminder: when and if the stay is lifted, same sex couples can apply for a license online. Here’s an advisory to help you.

Most of us were so swept up in anticipation of, then excitement over District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling last Wednesday, Aug. 4,  affirming the constitutional right of same sex couple to marry that we didn’t notice that court also posted videos and documents presented as part of the Prop 8 trial. All of this material – including the actual courtroom testimony (transcripts of which are available on the American Foundation for Equal Rights website – is now part of the record going before the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeal.

Among the videos, is the edited (35:31) deposition of William Tam, the Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Traditional Family Coalition and a Protect Marriage spokesperson in the Asian community. Tam was the Protect Marriage witness who wanted out of the case because he said he feared for the safety of himself and his family.

Tam’s fear of retaliation by Prop 8 opponents was also referenced by the US Supreme Court on to block broadcasting of the trial (here and here) something LGBT POV’s Mark Hefflinger expanded upon in his thorough piece looking at how the Prop 8 proponents use “victimization” as a PR weapon.

During the Tam deposition, conducted in San Francisco the morning of Dec. 1, 2009 by Ethan Dettmer, a partner of Ted Olson’s law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Tam admitted that he had spoken several times in public venues as well as conducted media interviews at the behest of Protect Marriage. On this edited tape, the he does not mention being afraid at any of public appearances, nor does he express fear about being a witness at trial.

This tape was played in court on Jan. 13, after which AFER issued a statement on the Supreme Court’s decision not to allow cameras in the court in which they discuss Tam’s deposition and release the letter Tam wrote which clearly shows animus toward gays (example: “If we lose, this will very likely happen……1. Same-Sex marriage will be a permanent law in California. One by one, other states would fall into Satan’s hand….”).

Additionally – the juxtaposition between what Dettmer reads into the record about Tam’s references to Satan and the way he was clearly coached to reply to expected question is just extraordinary.

The most striking portion of the deposition, which was shown at trial, is Tam acknowledging the aforementioned  letter he had written urging a vote for Prop 8 in which he says that same sex marriage will lead to legal prostitution and legal sex with children:

“This is put forth by the SF city government, which is under the rule of homosexuals. 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: legalizing having sex with children.”

Please click inside to read more from the transcript of Tam’s deposition:

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MUST WATCH. CLEAREST JUXTAPOSITION BETWEEN TRUTH AND LIES I’VE EVER SEEN! Also – please note that Tony Perkins alludes to legislation being introduced when Congress is called back this week – which presumably means the radical right will re-introduce a federal constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage.

So many LGBT reporters and bloggers are doing a good job serving as eyewitnesses to history as the LGBT movement for equal rights bursts with visibility. But from a Prop 8 perspective, I want to especially commend Rick Jacobs and the Courage Campaign, which is providing an incredibly important resource with both its Prop8TrialTracker.com and its off-shoot on the same site, NOMTourTracker, working in cooperation with Freedom to Marry.

As Courage’s Eden James points out, someone who regularly posts comments on Prop8TrialTracker is Kathleen Perrin, who blogs as ownbycatz. Perrin has been posting invaluable Prop 8-related public documents (except transcripts which are available at the American Foundation for Equal Rights) on her Scribd account: http://www.scribd.com/ownbycatz

Someone who has emerged as a grassroots heroine is Courage’s Field Director Arisha Michelle Hatch, (pictured), a former lawyer and Obama 2008 organizer who explains in this interview with Prop8TrialTracker’s Adam Bink (from OpenLeft), what it’s like following Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher around on their National Organization for Marriage Tour in order to expose show NOM’s scarce attendance and their false assertions.

In a preview of her video interview with Dr. Alveda King in Atlanta on Friday, Hatch said:

“My streak of remaining disengaged as an interviewer was broken today in front of the Capitol building in Atlanta.  I’ve interviewed Larry Adams, a NOM rally attendee, that suggested that the solution to homosexuality was lynching; I’ve interviewed a Pentecostal minister, speaking in tongues in Providence; I’ve endured Brian Brown’s spin without flinching.

But today was different.

Five minutes into my interview with (video coming), I began to cry.”

Here’s that interview:

From the American Foundation for Equal Rights:

UPDATE:  Livestream of the official plaintiffs press conference will be at www.equalrightsfoundation.org. Press conference to start within minutes of decision being issued. (Pictured: AFER’’s Chad Griffin with plaintiffs Paul Katami, Jeff Zarrillo, Kris Perry, and Sandy Stier outside the federal District Courthouse in San Francisco on June 16, 2010. Photo by Karen Ocamb)

The court has announced that the decision in the landmark Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial will be announced Wednesday, August 4 between 1 pm and 3 pm PT.  The American Foundation for Equal Rights – the organization that launched the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case and brought together attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies to argue it – will hold a news conference in San Francisco immediately after a decision is issued and will hold a public event later in the day in West Hollywood (Los Angeles).  Both events will include the plaintiffs, lead attorneys Ted Olson & David Boies and Foundation leadership.

WHAT:

WHO:

*Perry v. Schwarzenegger/Prop. 8 Trial Plaintiffs Kris Perry, Sandy Stier, Paul Katami, Jeff Zarrillo

*Lead attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies

*American Foundation for Equal Rights Board President Chad Griffin

WHEN:

*San Francisco News Conference: Within minutes of the decision

*West Hollywood (Los Angeles) Public Event: 6pm Pacific (Tentative Time)

WHERE:

Please click inside for links to the closing arguments, transcripts, info about the plaintiffs, and news articles.

Like so many of us, my friends Mary Jo Godges and Renee Sotile are anxiously awaiting District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling on the constitutionality of Prop 8, the amendment passed by voters in 2008 that stripped away the right of same sex couples to marry in California. Walker does not have to give any advance warning that the decision is imminent – so we’re all just holding our breath.

Mary Jo (wearing the glasses in this photo) and Renee got married on Election Day 2008, becoming among the same sex couples married before the right was rescinded. When Mary Jo told me she had former Vice President Al Gore and LA Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean on videotape talking about the case – I realized this was more than just waiting for the news. For them, the wait alone was like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, threatening their marriage, as well, though the California Supreme Court ruled the 18,000 or so same sex marriages remained valid. I asked Mary Jo to write about their marriage – just a reminder to everyone what this Prop 8 ruling is all about. Please click inside to read Mary Jo’s story, plus see video of Lorri Jean on the ruling and Mary Jo and Renee’s wedding.

But first – considering how prescient Al Gore is (he was warning about climate change long before An Inconvenient Truth) – here’s the exchange between Renee and Gore, during a book tour stop in Beverly Hills on Nov. 12, 2009. Renee hands him a DVD of a documentary she and Mary Jo made about Christa McAuliffe, the first Teacher in Space who was killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. (Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars).  Gore says, “I hear good things about the court decision coming up on Prop 8.” He says this six months after the American Foundation for Equal Rights announced they filed Perry v, Schwarzenegger and two months before the case went to trial in San Francisco.

A federal court in Washington state is currently weighing whether signers of a 2009 ballot petition face a grave enough threat of reprisal for their support of “traditional marriage,” to warrant blocking the release of their names as required under a state law. The petition they signed aimed to strip domestic partner protections from gay and lesbian couples, but voters approved Ref. 71 and kept the protections intact.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled strongly in favor of disclosure, rejecting in their 8-1 decision in Doe v. Reed the notion that publicly disclosing the names of petition signers generally violates their First Amendment rights. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that disclosure helps root out fraud in signature gathering, and “promotes transparency and accountability in the electoral process to an extent that other measures cannot.”

What the Court mostly eschewed, and left for the Washington state court to address, is whether the particular case of Washington’s Ref. 71 presents special circumstances warranting an exception to disclosure, due to a “reasonable probability” that disclosure of these petitions will subject petition signers to “threats, harassment, or reprisals.”

Justice Samuel Alito tries to make the case in his Doe v. Reed concurring opinion that “the widespread harassment and intimidation suffered by supporters of California’s Proposition 8 provides strong support for an as-applied exemption [from disclosure] in the present case.”

Evidence of this purported harassment and intimidation suffered by backers of Prop. 8 — the ballot measure that stripped the rights of gays and lesbians to wed in California in 2008 — has been trumpeted far and wide by anti-gay groups wishing to perpetuate a meme that they are in fact victims in their campaigns to codify gay Americans as second-class citizens.

Adam Umhoefer,  Senior Project Director at the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), is organizing a rally for the night District Court Judge Vaughn Walker issues his decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal challenge to the constitutionality of Prop 8. AFER is leading the challenge, having hired top attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies to argue the case on behalf of plaintiffs Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami and Kris Perry and Sandy Stier.

Umhoefer says that, unlike other court decisions where there is often ample notice given to the attorneys, Walker can issue his ruling at any time. The Media Coalition, represented by Thomas Burke of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, sent a letter to Walker Thursday requesting 48 hour advance notice.

Umhoefer says the plans are still being firmed up but the site of the rally will most likely be West Hollywood. The city has a special stake in the outcome as it was the celebrated destination where so many of the 18,000 legal marriages were performed two years ago when same sex couples had marriage equality in California.  The best way to stay on top of all Prop 8 trial-related news, he says, is to go to the AFER website to sign up for instant updates – including the decision and the rally site – via text and email.

UPDATE:  AFER will hold a media event in San Francisco immediately after the decision is issued with plaintiffs Kris Perry, Sandy Stier, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, the attorneys, and AFER head Chad Griffin. Other plans still being firmed up.

Some terrific journalists covered the federal Prop 8 trial and have provided a nice mosaic of reporting on Wednesday’s historic closing arguments in Judge Vaughn Walker’s San Francisco courtroom. The American Foundation for Equal Rights posted the entire trial transcript on their website during which you can read how Ted Olson, arguing for plaintiffs Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami and Sandy Stier and Kris Perry, passionately summed up why same sex couples deserve marriage equality.

With hard news reporters summing up the remarkable closing arguments – I found that there were other unnoticed or underreported stories that also contribute to the record of this remarkable time, including how the elections this November could dramatically impact the outcome of the trial. The National Organization for Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher told me, for instance, that she thinks Walker may rule that Prop 8 discriminates based on gender as well as sexual orientation. I was also amused to see that NOM posted video of Ted Olson’s moving answer to a question I asked at the news conference on their NOM blog.

Click inside to read Ted Olson’s answer to why he was so passionate during the closing arguments, plus reaction from NOM’s Maggie Gallagher, MEUSA’s Molly McKay, Lance Black and Cleve Jones, plus how the federal Prop 8 trial could be impacted by politics.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights has posted the official transcript of the closing arguments in the federal Prop 8 trial in Judge Vaughn Walker’s San Francisco court room yesterday. See for yourself what all the fuss is about.

Since there are so many great stories about the closing arguments – such as Lisa Keen’s excellent Prop 8 closing: Fear v. Equality – I’m working on some underreported stories with quotes from such people as plaintiff’s attorney David Boies, plainifiss Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami, MEUSA/CA’s Molly McKay, AFER’s Cleve Jones and Lance Black and NOM’s Maggie Gallagher, plus some observations about Prop 8 proponents such as attorneys Charles Cooper (pictured) and Andy Pugno, who recently won his Republican Assembly primary race.

Anticipation is building. The atmosphere itself seems to reverberate with history. On Wednesday morning, District Court Judge Vaughn Walker will hear closing arguments in the federal trial challenging the constitutionality of Prop 8.

The timing is synchronous with the two-year anniversary of the first legal marriages in California on June 16, 2008. And not coincidentally, the lawsuit at the center of the challenge, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, was launched by the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) in Los Angeles on May 27, 2009 –  the day after the California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Prop 8. This was the same court that ruled a year earlier, on May 15, 2008, that same sex couples had been denied the fundamental constitutional right to marry.  To underscore just how this profound fight for the freedom to marry transcends partisan politics, AFER brought together two of the best legal minds in America – Ted Olson and David Boies – who had been on opposing sides in the historic Bush v. Gore case in 2000.

To lay people like me, the federal Prop 8 case seems to boil down to the constitutional rights of gays as a group of historically disadvantaged people versus the political will of “the people” based on their religious beliefs. After the majority of the case concluded last Januray, philosopher/columnist Linda Hirshman wrote in the Daily Beast that the “gay-marriage case now unfolding in a San Francisco courtroom may be the most important battle between tradition and modernity since the Scopes trial.”

Indeed, one of the questions plaintiff’s counsel has been instructed by Walker to answer in closing arguments is whether sexual orientation is a “choice” or not – a key to whether gays can be legally considered a minority deserving of equal protection under the US Constitution.

Please click inside to read more about the closing arguments, as well as links to bring you up to speed, links to sites and reporters who will be covering the trial on Wednesday, and the timeline for the arguments. ADDITIONALLY – AFER JUST RELEASED OLSON/BOIES’ ANSWERS TO JUDGE WALKER’S QUESTIONS, PLUS LINK TO PROP 8 PROPONENTS ARE ALSO INSIDE.

Next week, on Wednesday, June 16, attorneys arguing in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Prop 8, will deliver their closing arguments before District Court Judge Vaugn Walker in San Francisco. Please check the American Foundation for Equal Rights for updates. The court just released the schedule for those arguments:

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Plaintiffs (argued by Ted Olson and David Boies)

11:30 AM – 11:45 AM City and County of San Francisco

11:45 AM – 12:00 PM Governor, Attorney General and county defendants

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Lunch

1:00 PM – 3:15 PM Proponents (argued by Charles Cooper)

3:15 PM – 3:45 PM Plaintiffs’ rebuttal

The closing arguments will be followed by news conferences, presumably from at least the Plaintiff and Proponents side.

On the eve of next week’s closing arguments in the federal Prop 8 trial, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is leading the charge to have Prop 8 declared unconstitutional in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, announced that Robert A. Levy, chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute, and John Podesta (pictured), President and CEO of the progressive Center for American Progress have joined AFER as Co-chairs of the Foundation’s Advisory Board. Chad Griffin, the Foundation’s Board President, said AFER was honored, adding: “This case is about affirming the equal protection under the law guaranteed to every American by the Constitution, which is why it is supported by such a diverse spectrum of leaders.”

Levy and Podesta explained their position in an Op-Ed published in Tuesday’s Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt:

“Although we serve, respectively, as president of a progressive and chairman of a libertarian think tank, we are not joining the foundation’s advisory board to present a “bipartisan” front. Rather, we have come together in a nonpartisan fashion because the principle of equality before the law transcends the left-right divide and cuts to the core of our nation’s character. This is not about politics; it’s about an indispensable right vested in all Americans.

[cut]

Our history will soon be written by young people who are seizing the reins from the baby boomers. They seem prepared to reject laws that serve no purpose other than to deny two committed and loving individuals the right to join in a mutually reinforcing marital relationship.

The decision in Perry depends, of course, on values far more permanent and important than opinion polls. No less than the constitutional rights of millions of Americans are at stake. But the public appears to be catching up with the Constitution. Just a little more leadership from the courts would be the perfect prescription for a free society.”

Expert blogger (BeyondChron) Paul Hogarth liveblogged the federal Prop 8 trial hearing Wednesday morning for the Courage Campaign’s Prop 8 Trial Tracker. After discussing different dates for final motions on testimony and discovery compliance (Equality California turned over 4,500 documents, including emails), Judge Vaughn Walker set June 16 at 10:am as the date and time for closing arguments in the historic federal challenge to the constitutionality of Prop 8.

Yusef Robb, spokesperson for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, noted that the date must still be worked out with the attorneys’ schedules. AFER Board President Chad Griffin said:

“Kris, Sandy, Paul and Jeff, and millions of Americans like them, simply want to get married, just like their friends and neighbors can. Proposition 8 denies fundamental Constitutional rights and does so for no good reason. Today’s move toward closing arguments brings us that much closer to full equality for every American.”

In an analysis of the hearing, Hogarth noted that Walker also set a date for the defense counsel – the Yes on 8 side – to submit their motion to try to delete portions Dr. Tam’s testimony. As I reported last January, Tam was on a video (since taken down) shown in court as representing the Traditional Values Coalition. He was the first to refused to testify in open court for fear of attacks by No on Prop 8 supporters. Through the defenders-interveners, he has asked that part of his testimony – which was submitted by the legal team of Ted Olson/David Boies representing the plaintiffs – be stricken from the record. According to Hogarth’s blog, Walker said: “I am inclined to grant the defense motion for Dr. Tam’s reconsideration, and want their submission by May 6 and have plaintiffs objection by May 10.”

Please click inside for more, including a reminder of who Dr. Tam is.

The Advocate monthly magazine is out with its new issue and gracing the cover for the feature piece “Forty Under 40″ is Chad Griffin, who they describe as “aggressive, calculating, and determined to end inequality for gay and lesbian couples once and for all. This is why Chad Griffin, mastermind of the federal lawsuit against Proposition 8, is the new face of the marriage movement.”

Here’s an except from Andrew Harmon’s excellent story:

In Perry, Griffin masterminded the legal team—a ripped-from-the-headlines combination of Ted Olson, a former solicitor general under George W. Bush, and David Boies, Olson’s legal adversary in Bush v. Gore. He launched the American Foundation for Equal Rights to help foot the bills that are accompanying the legal challenge. The organization didn’t exist a year ago. Milk screenwriter and foundation board member Dustin Lance Black only hinted at an early iteration of the group in this magazine’s previous “Forty Under 40” issue, and it remains a small operation, with one full-time staff member and a board that includes Kristina Schake, Griffin’s business partner in the communications and consulting firm Griffin|Schake, and director Rob Reiner, who tapped Griffin in the Las Virgenes campaign and has worked with him on early-education causes. Aesthetically, the foundation’s website is nearly indistinguishable from, say, the Tea Party movement’s site: no rainbow hues, no equality symbols, just American flags—something Griffin was adamant about. “That’s my flag too. That’s the LGBT community’s flag as much as any other group,” he says. “We aren’t some different class of people that wants some unique right.”

Though it might appear that the federal challenge to the constitutionality of Prop 8 is on hiatus because of the dearth of news stories – the American Foundation for Equal Rights, sponsors of the challenge, have nonetheless been busy.

Ted Olson and David Boies, attorneys for the plaintiffs, appeared on Bill Moyers Journal and AFER communications director Yusef Robb (not pictured) and senior project director Adam Umhoefer (pictured here second from the left) attended a LA Press Club panel discussion last Thursday on the trial with The Advocate’s Andrew Harmon (left), Variety managing editor and blogger at wilshireandwashington.com (second from right) and journalism professor and KPCC radio contributor Jon Beaupre (right) and me.

There’s been some news – Judge Vaugh Walker’s court issued a press release saying closing arguments will not be televised. But most of the work has been behind the scenes with a flurry of motions about new discovery requests and other legal filings – all due Saturday. That included a 294-page summary filed by Olson and Boies spelling out how the evidence they presented in the three-week case proves that Prop 8 is unconstitutional.

Please click inside to read more.

Next Thursday – Feb. 25 – I am going to be on a Los Angeles Press Club panel with Andrew Harmon, senior editor for The Advocate, advocate.com and my legally married friend, Ted Johnson, managing editor of Variety and blogger at wilshireandwashington.com. The discussion topic is: “Covering the Prop. 8 Trial: Can the Gay Press Maintain Objectivity (and Should It)?”

Having served on the board of the LA Press Club with Ted, I suspect this topic was selected long before the San Francisco Chronicle published a political column noting the “open secret” that Prop 8 trial Judge Vaughn Walker is gay – which I wrote about citing some facts to counter the spin from the National Organization for Marriage. But the timing is terrific because it may well draw many more straight people who quietly have questions and harbor a lingering doubt about Walker – and our coverage, which is sometimes cited by the mainstream media.

The panel will be moderated by openly gay radio news star and college professor Jon Beaupre who moderated another Prop 8 panel I was on last year. That lead to a political awakening for at least one of his students. Watch:

What’s that adage about spin – say it long enough, hard enough, loud enough and eventually it will take on the cloak of truth? Well, the latest missive from National Organization Executive Director Brian Brown reads more like a fairy tale – showing that this Emperor has no clothes.

Brown’s email to supporters was in response a San Francisco Chronicle column published Sunday ostensibly “outing” Judge Vaughn Walker – who was not in the closet. But Brown’s email is full of so many oft-repeated lies, I decided to respond to his allegations about Judge Walker, point by point – using the transcript from the federal Prop 8 trial over which Walker is presiding. Please click inside to read my smack-down.

After testimony ended in the Prop 8 trial, Judge Vaughn Walker allowed post-trial amicus briefs to be filed by Feb. 3. Most appeared to support the plaintiffs. Both sides have until Feb. 26 to respond to the amicus briefs – after which Judge Walker will hold a hearing to handle details and set a date for closing arguments. Please click inside to read some details about six of the briefs.

LGBT POV is among the many LGBT and MSM blogs that have been covering the federal challenge to Prop 8 (see here and here, for example). And with the decision by the US Supreme Court not to allow broadcasts of the trial outside the San Francisco federal courthouse, bloggers such as Courage Campaign’s Rick Jacobs have been live-blogging the events.

But many of us also begged the American Foundation for Equal Rights – the group sponsoring the plaintiff’s legal team lead by Ted Olson and David Boies, to please secure the expensive trial transcripts and post them on their website so everyone can see what’s happening. LA-based political strategist Chad Griffin, chair of AFER’s board, said they’d do everything legally possible to ensure public access to the trial.

They have been doing all of this without any public request for financial help, other than a button to a page on their website. Late Thursday, however, Chad sent out a fundraising letter asking the community for help in keeping this trial going. With local activism at a standstill and political attention shifted to the upcoming elections and winning federal benefits, many are counting on the Prop 8 trial team to win full marriage equality. This is them asking for your help to do that. Please click inside to read Chad’s appeal.