Federal gay marriage challenge has Hollywood style Reuters

The story of two famous U.S. lawyers from opposite ends of the political spectrum banding together to launch a bold and unexpected fight for gay marriage sounds like it could have been written in Hollywood.

In many ways, it is.

A handful of political filmmakers led by a Democratic consultant have crafted a gay rights challenge they hope will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case which has its first hearing in a federal San Francisco court on July 2 could quickly make gay marriage a national right, or, some veteran gay rights advocates fear, cripple the movement.

The team has political experience, winning referenda in California in particular, and has brought together real-world firepower in the form of Ted Olson and David Boies, the lawyers who faced off in the 2000 election vote recount that led to George W. Bush’s presidency.

What sets them apart is the willingness to take on a court case that advocates steeped in the cause have avoided.

“Patience is a virtue I’ve quite frankly never possessed — if patience is a virtue,” said Chad Griffin, 35, who began his career in the political big leagues more than a decade ago as the youngest person to work on a president’s West Wing staff.

“History is on our side, law is on our side,” added Griffin, who is gay.

Rob Reiner, the “When Harry Met Sally” director and advocate for children’s health, and Bruce Cohen, the producer of “Milk,” a film about the first openly gay elected politician in California, are two of the six-member board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, founded for the court challenge.

See Federal gay marriage challenge has Hollywood style

Reuters

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TAKE ACTION: Obama Defends DOMA

President Obama had a chance to take a strong stance against the Defense of Marriage Act – and he blew it, going back on his promise to repeal the discriminatory law.

In a recent California Federal Court challenge filed by a couple married in California, President Obama’s Justice Department filed a brief supporting DOMA and justifying discrimination in government benefits against legally married same-sex couples.Enough is enough.

Demand that President Obama stop defending DOMA and instruct the Department of Justice to take any and all actions to support its repeal.
Demand President Obama push for complete equality for LGBT Americans, as he promised during his campaign.

We have been promised too much and have waited too long. Send a letter using EQCA’s Action Center and it will be delivered immediately to President Obama.

www.eqca.org/takeaction

President Obama has let us down. He can still fix this mistake, but he must act fast. Make sure he knows you want full equality now.
Please forward to everyone you know.In solidarity,
Geoff KorsExecutive DirectorEquality California

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WATCH: Maddow Calls Out Obama On “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

Reacting to yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court to not hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the military’s longstanding “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, Rachel Maddow featured a segment that broadly called the Obama administration’s oft-stated commitments to ending the practice into question.
Maddow points out that the case itself doesn’t hurt the cause of ending DADT. Advocates for a change in policy were of the mind that the Supreme Court challenge would not be a game-changer. Nevertheless, Maddow opined that the case was “a big deal” because for all of President Barack Obama’s past advocacy in support of ending DADT, he now has a lawyer of his very own arguing that the policy is “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.”
Which is, of course, ridiculous. All “don’t ask don’t tell” is, is a policy by which everyone pretends that the gay and lesbian soldiers that are already serving in the military aren’t really there, and that everything is okay provided that those gay and lesbian soldiers agree to participate in the Grand Shenanigan of Pollyanna Pretense. So, no, Mr, President. No, Mr. President’s lawyer. No. No. And, no. It simply cannot be said that “don’t ask don’t tell” is rationally related to a single blessed thing.

WATCH: Maddow Calls Out Obama On “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

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New Prop. 8 court challenge brings former legal rivals together

The California Supreme Court failed to protect gay couples’ fundamental right to marry when it upheld Proposition 8, forcing same-sex couples to appeal to the federal courts to remedy the injustice, two prominent lawyers said today in announcing a lawsuit on behalf of two gay couples.
Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, a renowned conservative, and David Boies, who opposed Olson in Bush v. Gore in the 2000 fight over the presidential election, cast their collaborative effort to restore the right of gays to marry in California as a moral imperative to correct an injustice. Their suit seeks an immediate injunction on Prop. 8′s ban, thereby allowing same-sex marriages to resume while the case makes its way through the federal court system.
But Olson’s role in the gay rights mission prompted much speculation about his motives. The former Bush administration official, who lost his wife in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, conceded that the federal courts might not be ready to recognize sexual orientation as a class in need of protection from discrimination, but he said he hoped “that people don’t suspect my motives,” vowing to demonstrate his commitment to equal rights by winning the challenge.
Boies vouched for Olson as “committed in heart and soul to equality and committed in heart and soul to the Constitution.” See New Prop. 8 court challenge brings former legal rivals together Los Angeles Times * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual