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CA: Therese Stewart Fights for Marriage Equality at the Prop 8 Trial

Monday, February 1st, 2010

The fact that Therese Stewart didn’t get much publicity during the landmark federal court trial challenging Proposition 8 isn’t really a surprise: Lesbians do tend to be invisible. But Therese (pronounced tuh-REZ) Stewart had a fairly visible role—right up there with the big guns of Ted Olson, David Boies, and Charles Cooper –the nationally known attorneys at the center of the publicity.

Stewart, known as Terry to family and friends, gave an opening statement for the City of San Francisco, right after Olson did for the plaintiff couples and Cooper did for the Yes on 8 defense. She provided direct examination of George Chauncey, an expert witness on the history of gay discrimination. And she’ll be giving a closing argument, too.

She was born in San Francisco in 1957 and grew up in Marin, thinking she might run for Congress someday. As a kid, she recalls, she put on a man’s suit and carried a briefcase that, in retrospect should have been a hint that she might grow up to be gay. “But I didn’t figure it out til I was 24,” said Stewart. Her spouse, Carole Scagnetti, an attorney and head of Marriage Equality USA, teases her about that.

Full Story from Keen News Service
Click here for gay marriage resources.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

Posted in attorney, Gay Marriage, lawyer, marriage equality, prop 8, proposition 8, same sex marriage, terry, therese stewart, trial | No Responses »

Malawi: Update on Engaged Gay Couple on Trial

Monday, January 25th, 2010

In Malawi, two men who dared to go public with their relationship by holding a traditional “marriage” ceremony are on trial for indecency, and face 14 years in jail. “It’s so scary,” one gay man, who didn’t want to be identified, told Sky News in the city of Blantyre, where the trial is taking place.

“We are not feeling free and are worried about being arrested. It is the first case to be brought under Malawi’s longstanding legislation banning homosexuality in years.

The rise of US style evangelist preachers has contributed to a hardening of attitudes in the tiny southern African state.

Full Story from Sky News
Click here for gay marriage resources.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

Posted in engaged, gay couple, Gay Marriage, malawi, marriage equality, prison, same sex marriage, trial | No Responses »

CA: Prop 8 Trial, Day 3 Summary

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

MORNING SUMMRY:

A Salt Lake City news station reports on the possibility that documents from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) will be introduced in Perry v. Schwarzenegger: Will LDS church documents surface at California Gay Marriage trial?

And on the “gays are a threat to marriage” front, Nate Silver at 538 Dot Com has evidence that shows divorce rates are higher in states with gay marriage bans.

This morning’s proceedings of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, we had the cross-examination of plaintiff’s expert witness, Yale historian George Chauncey, by David Thompson, attorney for the defendants (supporters of Prop. 8). The main thing Thompson seemed to be looking for was evidence that discrimination against gays and lesbians has dramatically decreased in recent years, as if this somehow makes continued discrimination all right.

Full Morning Story from Kel’s Hot Flash: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/hotflash/blogs/post?oid=1353407

AFTERNOON:

First, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled (5-4, with the conservatives in the majority) that cameras should not be allowed in the trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. That’s a real blow for transparency and for civic education. Nothing would disabuse people of the notion of an “activist” judiciary so quickly as watching a few trials.

A new witness for the plaintiffs this afternoon: Letitia Anne Peplau, professor of social psychology at UCLA. She was questioned by plaintiff’s attorney Christopher Dusseault.

Peplau is an expert on four relevant issues: The benefits of marriage; similarities between gay and straight marriages; benefits to gays of marriage; and lack of harm to straight marriage posed by gay marriage. Peplau testified that three times as many gay people got married when it became legal in Massachusetts as had gotten civil unions or domestic partnerships. This indicates that marriage is perceived as a preferred status.

Full Story from Kel’s Hot Flash: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/hotflash/blogs/post?oid=1353526

Click here for gay marriage resources in California.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

Posted in day 3, Gay Marriage, marriage equality, prop 8, proposition 8, same sex marriage, summary, trial | No Responses »

Malawi: Gay Couple to Be Tried on January 15th

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

A Malawian court yesterday refused bail to two men who celebrated their engagement to be married in a traditional African ceremony, which they held late last year. Giving his ruling at a court in the city of Blantyre on Monday January 4, judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa claimed Steven Monjeza (26) and Tiwonge Chimbalanga (20) were at risk of mob violence and would be safer in custody – a claim rejected by the defendants and their lawyers.

In Malawi, even people accused of serious crimes like violent robbery and assault usually get bail.

The same day the police arrested a worker from the human rights group CEDEP, which assisted the detained men and secured them legal representation.

Full Story from UK Gay News: http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/10/Jan/0501.htm

Click here for gay marriage resources.

Posted in gay couple, Gay Marriage, malawi, trial | 1 Response »

CA: Prop 8 Trial May Be Televised

Friday, December 18th, 2009

The must-see TV of David Boies, Ted Olson & The Gay Marriage Debate could soon be hitting your flatscreen. The Recorder: The Judicial Council of the 9th Circuit authorized television cameras in certain district court proceedings Thursday, reviving a national controversy just weeks before a groundbreaking trial over same-sex marriage is slated to begin in San Francisco.

The 9th Circuit currently allows cameras to televise appellate arguments, as does the 2nd Circuit. A private vendor has also recorded a handful of district court proceedings in New York.

But under the 9th Circuit’s new experimental program — in which only civil, nonjury trials would qualify — district courts would be likely to use their own camera equipment, said Circuit Executive Cathy Catterson. The method of distribution would be figured out on a case-by-case basis.

Full Story from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/cameras-in-court-okd-in-california-gay-marriage-trial-first-up-2009-12