Proposition 8 Returns to Court on Whether Trial Videos to be Released

The proponents of Proposition 8 continue to do all they can to block the release of video tapes of the trial in Judge Walker's court. As the American Foundation for Equal Rights notes, the video recording of a trial—which was conducted in an open courtroom and of which the transcripts are public record. Yet the Prop 8 supporters demand that they should be hidden from the American people forever. Why? I suspect because reading a transcript is one thing (and something many will not bother to do) but watching a video where demeanor and animus are more easily picked up upon is something else. The Christianists and Mormons behind Prop 8 do not want their true face - and the fact that their ONLY basis for Prop 8 boils down to religion - to be easily shown to the public at large. Likewise, they do not want the public to see the lie in their claims that Judge Walker (a Republican appointee) was biased. Here are highlights from Huffington Post:

SAN FRANCISCO — The legal sparring over California's same-sex marriage ban returned to a federal courtroom Monday with a judge hearing arguments on whether he should unseal video recordings of last year's landmark trial on the constitutionality of the voter-approved measure.

Lawyers representing two same-sex couples, the city of San Francisco and a coalition of media groups that includes The Associated Press asked Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware to make the recordings public.

They maintained that allowing people to see the proceedings for themselves was necessary to demonstrate why Ware's predecessor, former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, ultimately struck down the ban, known as Proposition 8, and to counter any perceptions that Walker was biased against same-sex marriage opponents from the start. Ware did not rule at the end of Monday's hearing but said he would issue a written ruling at a later date.

Walker's ruling from last August overturning Proposition 8 as an unconstitutional violation of the civil rights of gay Californians is currently on appeal. The recordings are part of the case record before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Also before the federal appeals court is the proponents' challenge to Ware's refusal in June to vacate Walker's decision. The ban's sponsors have argued that Walker should have revealed he was in a long-term gay relationship before he presided over the closely watched trial.

Gay rights supporters already have used the written transcripts to recreate the full 13-day trial for online audiences. Next month, Morgan Freeman, Marisa Tomei and other big-name actors are scheduled to perform a dramatic play about the trial that screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for the film "Milk," created from the written testimony.

Gay rights supporters claim the footage is their smoking gun, proof that arguments against same-sex marriage cannot hold up under rules of evidence sustained scrutiny and legal standards.

They want to use live segments, especially the cross-examinations to which the expert witnesses called by Proposition 8's supporters were subjected, to nudge the American public further in its embrace of same-sex marriage, although it's unclear what the vehicle for the snippets would be.

"There really is only one question--what do they have to hide?" said American Foundation for Equal Rights President Chad Griffin, whose group is funding the Proposition 8 case.

It sickens me that those who want to make LGBT Americans don't even have the courage to go public on their hate an animus. Instead, they want to hide behind violations of campign finance disclosure laws and hide their faces from the public.