Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Prop 8 Ruling

In a bold move that takes a new approach to achieving marriage equality, two attorneys who argued opposing sides of the 2000 Bush v. Gore lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court have filed a challenge to Proposition 8 in federal court.
Theodore B. Olson, the U.S. solicitor general from 2001 to 2004 under President George W. Bush, and David Boies, a high-profile trial lawyer who argued on behalf of former vice president Al Gore, filed the suit May 22 in U.S. district court on behalf of two California gay couples.
The attorneys argue that relegating same-sex couples to domestic partnerships instead of granting them full marriage rights is a violation of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Olson said he was contacted several months ago by representatives of an association called the American Foundation for Equal Rights about his willingness to represent the two couples named in the suit.
“For a long time I’ve personally felt that we are doing a grave injustice for people throughout this country by denying equality to gay and lesbian individuals,” Olson said in an interview with The Advocate. “The individuals that we represent and will be representing in this case feel they’re being denied their rights. And they’re entitled to have a court vindicate those rights.”
When pressed about his service with the Bush administration, which in 2004 endorsed an amendment to the U.S. constitution that would prohibit same-sex marriage, Olson said he was personally against the amendment at the time, though he made no public statements on the matter.
As for the timing of the suit, Olson said that recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court “make it clear that individuals are entitled to be treated equally under the Constitution. I’m reasonably confident that this is the right time for these [injustices] to be vindicated.”
Olson, Boies, and other attorneys working on the suit are being compensated by the American Foundation for Equal Rights, Olson said his law firm and others also are contributing resources pro bono.
(MN)

PROP H8 Stays

Prayer Service on the Eve of Decision Day, Monday, May 25 Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

You are invited to the following events:

"1. Prayer Service on the EVE of Decision Day – Monday, May 25Grace Cathedral (1100 California Street San Francisco), 7:00 – 8:30 pmThe night before the announcement of the CA Supreme Court’s decision, we invite the Bay Area community to come for an evening of songs and meditation that will center our hearts on peace, healing and understanding.2. Service/Blessing on Decision Day – Tuesday, May 26St. Francis Lutheran Church (152 Church St. San Francisco, across from Castro Safeway), 8:30 – 9:15 amThe morning of the decision, we invite the Bay Area community to come for encouraging music and words from community leaders, testimonies from married couples and blessings for those who will be doing civil disobedience. We will march in a procession from the church to Civic Center Plaza. Some people will join the march from the LGBT Center on Market and Octavia.

NOTE: We request clergy to come in their religious garb as appropriate for their tradition. Please come at 8:00am to prepare.CONTACT: Rev. Roland Stringfellow at stringfellow@clgs.org3.

Circle of Care – Tuesday, May 26, Civic Center PlazaIf Proposition 8 is upheld, we will surround those who are willing to be arrested in civic disobedience as we sing, and move aside as they are arrested.Marriage is not just a nice idea for some. To deny it is a form of bashing. On Decision Day, a group of people will participate in civil disobedience if the Supreme Court upholds Prop 8. In partnership with an interfaith group of clergy, we'll do a peaceful street blockade with the message SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL!We're looking for people to participate in this action with us, and for friends who will support us as peacekeepers and legal observers. For more information, please email action at onestruggleonefight.com."

(GB)

SFist.com Sent Us List For Prop 8 Gatherings In SF

"After much speculation this week, the California State Supreme Court will announce its official decision on Prop 8, the gay marriage ban, on Tuesday, May 26
Here's what will go down the day before the ruling is announced:
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.: Interfaith Prayer service at Grace Cathedral (1100 California St). Regardless of your position on same-sex marriage, all are welcome.
Here's what will happen the day of the ruling is announced, which seems to involve an inordinate amount of praying:
8:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.: Service/Blessing at St. Francis Lutheran Church (152 Church St, across from Safeway).
9:15 a.m. to 10 a.m.: March from Saint Francis to Civic Center Plaza.
9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.: California Supreme Court steps (400 McAllister Street) "Everyone is invited to stand with us on the steps to receive the ruling. If you are a couple that married, or wanted to marry and will speak to media, please email your name, contact information, phone number and story to media@marriageequality.org. Please bring your families and allies with you."
10:30 a.m.: Circle of Care at Civic Center Plaza. If, in fact, the prop 8 is upheld, Bay Area clergy and congregants will "engage in nonviolent civil disobedience immediately after receiving the ruling" Visit onestruggleonefight.org for more details."
Please follow these sites for more information: (SFist) (One Struggle One Fight)

BREAKING NEWS: Prop 8 Is To Be Upheld!

Our source in the court says he is still 90% sure prop 8 will be upheld by the court.
Source inside court: "We are getting slammed right now, so I can't talk long , but I stand by my earlier comment." link to comments: AZIRE
UPDATE: Our source will now say he is 100% sure the ruling will be upheld- Prop 8 will stand. He has gone on to say:
Source in court: "Looking at it (prop 8) there was never really a chance."
Lee Azire: What would you say the odds are now, after telling me what you did off the record, still 90%?
Source: "I would go further and say 100%" prop 8 will stand"
(Please remember that this is from ONE source, we have not been able to get a second source.)
For Full interview from May 20, 2009 click here

EXCLUSIVE: Prop 8 Ruling Rescheduled For Tuesday

What follows is a copy of our interview with a source who works in the California Supreme Court. He has been right on everything he has told us to date.

Thanks goes to Joe My God blog, who posted pictures of barricades in San Francisco, which motivated me to call an old friend of mine who works for the court. I never really expected him to share all he has. 1st post, 2nd post.

Here is the interview done at 5:20pm PCT today.

Lee Azire: I want to thank you again for agreeing to talk to me again. I know that I am pushing our friendship.

Source: Yeah, (laugh) you are. I never thought. (stops) never mind.

Lee Azire: No, go ahead.

Source: I never thought, it's just, that I would leak information from my job.

Lee Azire: Why are you? You could have said you didn't know anything when I first called you.

Source: Yes, but, you're persuasive. (chuckles)

Lee Azire: I'm not buying that, why did you tell me about the barricades when I first called you yesterday, and again this morning about the ruling being pushed back when the court realized the date was on the anniversary of the white riot?

Source:I want us (gay community) to be ready for this verdict, be prepared to react in a sane way.

Lee Azire: Why not tell a major news source? Why tell my month old blog? You could have reached a lot more people, or have you talked to others?

Source: No one else. You called at just the right time and I thought it would be over and done with today. When I told you that the barricades were for the ruling, I thought it would all be over today. And then when I came in this morning the whole situation had changed. And you called yelling that I was wrong.

Lee Azire: Alright then what happened today? Was it, as some have reported that Gavin Newsom stopped it?

Source: Definitely not. It is not done that way. The court does not take kindly to pressure, from anyone.

Lee Azire: Has there been pressure?

Source: Yeah, and then some. We get e-mails, calls, letters, it is amazing. I've been here a (redacted to protect source) and I've never seen anything this hot.

Lee Azire: Can you tell me when the court is going to rule?

Source:(long pause)

Lee Azire: Do you know?

Source: It's now scheduled for this Tuesday. Thinking today was it was after a long holiday, people would be out of town on the days prior, away from e-mails. On Tuesday, you know there would be the catch up at work after the holiday. People would have released a lot of energy you know, would be...how...less inflammatory not being on the date (White Riot) and all. But, they (the court) can change the date again if they decide to. But, I don't think they will, not again.

Lee Azire: Do you know what it will say?

Source: No, the judges keep really tight on these cases. I doubt more than a handful of clerks even know the whole verdict.

Lee Azire: Any hints?

Source: I would say from the tenor and tone at work today it was not going to go our way.

Lee Azire: Is that just a guess or do you really know?

Source: I told you I don't know! But after you've been here(redacted to protect source) you learn the feel of the place.

Lee Azire: What was the "feel" that makes you think the ruling is in support of upholding prop 8?

Source: They moved the ruling date. Some worked late into the night. Things that just aren't done unless...It is just a feel.

Lee Azire: If you had to give a percent that they uphold prop 8 what would you guess?

Source: 80% to 90% It was a long shot to begin with.

Lee Azire: Wow, that high. Would you ever consider going on the record for us, with your name?

Source: Right, I would lose my job just like that. Never. (cursing and personal conversation redacted) I'm still a little pissed at you for sharing that I worked in the court.

Lee Azire: Sorry about that, another site kept saying the information was coming from the mayor's office (Gavin Newsom's), that I wanted to distance my report from that one. Anything else I should ask, or you want to share?

Source: I just want to go home eat and watch Idol.

Lee Azire: Thank you for talking to me again.

(personal conversation and good bye)

We must let our readers know that this is from ONE source. We have no way of getting a second confirming source. But, we thought it was important to bring this to our readers.

California Proposition 8 Ruling Will Be Thursday According To Source

Barricades were dropped off in San Francisco's Castro District as well as in San Diego. Is this it? People are asking across Twitter and in chat rooms.
A California official told us off the record that, "Yeah, they're doing it Thursday", referring to the proposition 8 ruling from the court. We can NOT get a second source to verify this comment.
We will know around 10a.m. when the Court posts its list of rulings for the next day.
As has been pointed out by many people Thursday will also be the 30th anniversary of the White Night Riots, and Friday is Harvey Milk's birthday. Could this be a good omen?

Mayor Gavin Newsom Grand Marshal Of Long Beach Gay Pride Parade

Under overcast skies Sunday, thousands lined Ocean Boulevard to watch as the 26th annual Pride Parade traveled west from Temple Avenue and spilled onto Alamitos Avenue.
Spectators in colorful beads, boas and buttons cheered as drag queens and men in leather strolled alongside church groups and human rights organizations.
Ocean Boulevard was a virtual wave of color as streamers, flags and windmills popped out from porches and balconies. Even the trademark lion statues in front of a home near the Long Beach Art Museum got a rainbow lei makeover.
Fans say it's this camaraderie and diversity that keeps them coming back each year.
The crowds roared as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, one of this year's Grand Marshals, rode by on a red 1965 Ford Thunderbird. After cruising through the parade route, the mayor came round on foot, shaking hands and giving high-fives.
"He's like a rock star!" said Long Beach resident David Wells, after shaking the mayor's hand.
Long Beach was Newsom's first gay pride parade outside of San Francisco. The mayor, who is running for governor in 2010, said he's traveling throughout the state to promote gay marriage and diversity.
"We don't tolerate diversity, we celebrate it," he said.
(PT)

Twitter Causes Gay Marriage Hysteria

Because some people are irredeemably stupid and nobody pays attention to anything, thousands of Twitter users rejoiced today at the news that the California Supreme Court just overturned the state's gay marriage ban. One year ago.
This will be studied by sociologists and anthropologists for years to come. At roughly noon today, someone "Tweeted" the news that the California Supreme Court had overturned the state's ban on gay marriage, supplying their "followers" with a Los Angeles Times story link as proof. The story, as anyone who can read could read, was dated May 16, 2008, right at the top, and was written back when the California Supreme Court did, in fact, find that gay couples have a right to marry under the state's constitution and, vitally, about six months before California voters amended the state's constitution to re-ban gay marriage.
But Twitter doesn't sweat the details! Thousands of users "re-Tweeted" it or whatever, and before you know it, the Los Angeles Times' own f*cking Twitter feed was sending the gay marriage news out to its 19,700-plus followers.
People began to celebrate and re-tweet the news. People were literally writing that they were crying at their desks at the news that gay people can get married in California now, when they in fact can't, because no one—not even the intern in charge of the Los Angeles Times's Twitter feed!—actually read the damn story.
So how did it happen? Twitter's time-stamping is fuzzy, so it's impossible to locate the original offending Tweet with precision. But one candidate for Patient Zero is Meredith Modzelewski, the Brooklyn blogger whose Tweet about the story showed up earliest in Twitter's search results. Interestingly, Modzelewski linked to a now-dead ABC News story, not the L.A. Times piece.
Contacted by the media, Modzelewski says—ironically—that she first heard the fake news through a pre-Twitter mode of communication: "From a friend" who in turn had read about it on someone's Facebook page. The fact that Modzelewski first came up with an ABC News story, and that it later became an L.A. Times story—not to mention the fact that it's the one-year anniversary—indicates that an orchestrated campaign was underway to spread the news. Modzelewski may have just been among the first people to bring it to Twitter.
So she "Tweeted" it and the next thing you know it's a Twitter shitstorm and the L.A. Times is embarrassingly "Tweeting" that it's earlier "Tweet" "does not reflect any new news" and linking to it's "full, current Prop. 8 coverage." This is what happens when you communicate 140 characters at a time.

California Senate Approves Harvy Milk Day

The California Senate has approved legislation that would designate a day each year to honor slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk.
The bill by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would designate each May 22—Milk's birthday—as a "day of special significance" to recognize the late San Francisco supervisor's contributions to the state.
It would not be an official holiday so there would be no cost to state government. The bill encourages but doesn't require schools to teach about Milk's legacy.
Milk was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. He was assassinated in 1978.
The measure passed, 24-14, with one Republican vote. It now heads to the Assembly.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a nearly identical bill last year.

(MH)