Most of us were so swept up in anticipation of, then excitement over District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling last Wednesday, Aug. 4, affirming the constitutional right of same sex couple to marry that we didn’t notice that court also posted videos and documents presented as part of the Prop 8 trial. All of this material – including the actual courtroom testimony (transcripts of which are available on the American Foundation for Equal Rights website – is now part of the record going before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal.
And needless to say that this video evidence is stunning. It totally belies the claims - especially by folks like Brian Brown from the National Organization for Marriage - that people voted Proposition 8 to specifically "protect marriage."
A lot of lies and fear went into pushing for Proposition 8. Right now, the writer of the piece, Karen Ocamb, is focusing on the testimony, the Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Traditional Family Coalition and a Protect Marriage spokesperson in the Asian community.
Tam tried to leave the case because he claimed he was fearful for the safety of his family. He ended up being a hostile witness for the plantiffs and did more than enough to prove that the Prop 8 vote wasn't just about marriage:
The most striking portion of the deposition, which was shown at trial, is Tam acknowledging the aforementioned letter he had written urging a vote for Prop 8 in which he says that same sex marriage will lead to legal prostitution and legal sex with children:
“This is put forth by the SF city government, which is under the rule of homosexuals. They lose no time in pushing the gay agenda – after legalizing same sex marriage they want to legalize prostitution. What will be next? On their agenda list is: legalizing having sex with children.”
Aside from Tam's videotaped testimony, other video evidence, which comprised mostly of the commercials for the Prop 8 side are stunning in their inaccurate claims about how marriage equality would harm children or how churches could lose their tax-exempt statuses. They would be downright infuriating until one realizes that while it was stuff like this that ensured a victory at the ballot box, it also ensured an embarrassing defeat in court.
Turnabout is fair play indeed.
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