The Federal Trial has Begun

Today is day Two of the Federal gay marriage trial-Perry v. Schwarzenegger. Reports from the courtroom indicate that there were many fewer people watching the proceedings there than yesterday.  Testimony continued from Dr. Nancy Cott who continued her brilliant testimony about the history of marriage. To read more about today’s proceeding read the eyewitness reports of my dear friend and reporter: Karen Ocamb on her blog.

We await with bated breath the Supreme Court ruling tomorrow on whether the proceedings can be filmed and made accessible to all.  As you might be aware of the Yes on 8 people went to the Supreme Court on Monday to prevent the court proceedings being available on delay on YouTube.  The Supremes agreed to hold off granting the injunction of the Yes on 8 folks to deny the coverage thus denying America of being able to see the strong opening statements by our side Ted Olson and Therese Stewart, the San Francisco Deputy City Attorney.  And most importantly the testimony of the plaintiffs and the real stories of real GLBT couples.  America should not be denied access to court coverage in this media age.

In fact Judge Walker said on opening day that more than 138,000 comments favoring filming and access were made to the court!  That is an impressive number. But the right-wingers-they want to shut down access for America to the normalcy of our lives.  They want to continue to paint their distorted picture of gay America.
But the truth is we are like everyone else.  We love. We hurt. We work and study.  We live. We laugh. We cry.

So let’s give the Supreme Court of the United States a shove tonight.  Open up the proceedings! Let’s see the real lives and loves of gay people and the insanity of the Yes on 8 people who want to do nothing short of demonize gay people and their families.

America is at its core a place of hope and opportunity. It should be for gay families too.