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Prop 8 trial witness testifies sexual orientation is not a choice
The plaintiffs in the legal challenge over California’s Proposition 8 called their final witness Friday, who testified that homosexuality is an inherent characteristic of gays and lesbians, not a social choice. Gregory Herek, a University of California-Davis psychology professor, testified that most people don’t choose their sexual orientation, few people change it and “conversion therapy” […]
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Prop 8 supporter testifies gay marriage is the ‘moral decay’ of society
A leading proponent of California’s Proposition 8, whose whose writings linked homosexuality to pedophilia and prostitution, was called to the stand as a “hostile witness” Thursday by plaintiff’s attorneys, aimed at showing that hostility and animus toward gays and lesbians fueled the passage of the voter-approved ban on gay marriage. Hak-Shing William Tam, director of […]
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Witness: Obama not an ‘ally’ for gays; memos link Mormon church to Prop 8
The federal case challenging California’s Proposition 8 wrapped up it’s seventh day Wednesday, with plaintiff’s attorneys producing documents showing close ties between the Mormon church and the Prop. 8 campaign, and one expert witness asserting that President Obama is “not a reliable ally” for gays and lesbians. First on the witness stand Wednesday was Ryan […]
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Prop 8, Day 6: San Diego mayor tells how he came to support gay marriage
The second week of gay marriage on trial, the federal case challenging California’s Proposition 8, opened Tuesday with San Diego’s mayor as the star witness. Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican, testified he now supports gay marriage, saying his views evolved after learning one of his daughters was a lesbian who wanted to marry her partner. […]
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Children of gay parents ‘as likely to be well adjusted’ says witness in Prop 8 trial
The first week in the historic case challenging California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage — Proposition 8 — came to a close on Friday, following a day of testimony in which child-rearing dominated the discussion, followed by a personal account of how marriage changed one lesbian’s life. The trial’s fifth day began with expert witness […]
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Day 4 testimony in Prop 8 trial turns to economic, health benefits of marriage
The trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger entered its fourth day in federal court Thursday, a high stakes landmark case challenging California’s Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage, that many see as a precursor to a showdow before the U.S. Supreme Court. On the witness stand Thursday, Edmund Egan, chief economist for the City […]
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Prop 8 supporter warned of falling into ‘Satan’s hands’ if gay marriage prevailed
In a letter released into federal court on Wednesday, a gay marriage opponent, and one of five defendants in the case challenging California’s Proposition 8, warned of the disastrous consequences of allowing gays to marry in California. “One by one, other states would fall into Satan’s hands,” wrote Hak-Shing William Tam. “Every child, when growing […]
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Prop 8 trial Day 3 – Witness: ‘remarkable similarities’ among gay, straight couples
The federal trial to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that reinstated a California ban on same-sex marriage, entered its third day of testimony Wednesday, with a focus on the similarities and differences between homosexual and heterosexual couples, with a psychology professor citing “remarkable similarities.” Letitia Peplau, an expert on couple relationships, testified that […]
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Prop 8 trial offers lessons in history as Day 2 of testimony unfolds
The legal challenge over Proposition 8 entered its second day in federal court in San Francisco Tuesday, with a few lessons in history from Ivy League historians called by the plantiffs. A Yale professor testifying in a case challenging California’s same-sex marriage ban said Tuesday that the 2008 campaign to pass Proposition 8 played on […]
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Theodore Olson: Making the conservative case for gay marriage
As the trial over California’s ban on same-sex marriage gets underway in San Francisco this week in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, plantiff’s attorney Theodore Olson has become an unexpected crusader for the rights of millions of gay Americans. Not so long ago, Olson argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case Bush […]