COMMENT:  So much for 'tolerance'.  Same-sex marriage supporters will not be satisfied until these relationships are legal and the sexual behavior is protected, supported and validated through public policy.  Now it is being reported that the judge hearing the court case on Prop 8 in California is homosexual.  No wonder I have been receiving emails about how that case is being handled. I encourage you to pray about the case and the people involved in passing Prop 8 as they are harassed.  The outcome could impact the whole country!!

The Elephant in the Room: No way to preach tolerance

Opponents of same- sex marriage have faced persecution in California.

The reaction of some Prop 8 opponents - the self-proclaimed champions of tolerance - was swift and fierce. They moved to harass and persecute Prop 8 supporters.

Groups such as the misnamed "Californians Against Hate" published blacklists of Prop 8 backers that included supporters' names and addresses. Prop 8 advocates became the target of harassing protests, phone calls, e-mails, and mailings.

A flier distributed in one town featured a photo of one Prop 8 backer, his name, the amount of his donation, and the name of his (Catholic) church. Next to his photo was the word "Bigot."

Some Prop 8 campaign donors had to resign from their jobs or take leaves of absence to protect their employers and colleagues. Top officials of California Musical Theatre and the Los Angeles Film Festival were forced to resign just because they had donated in support of Prop 8.

That wasn't all. These warriors for the oppressed also made a point of going after pro-Prop 8 Mormons and their church.

While this ugliness was exploding across California, the anti-Prop 8 forces also ran to the state courts to overturn the people's will. They claimed - get this - that the amendment to the state constitution violated the state constitution.

But not even a state Supreme Court with a habit of rewriting the constitution would accept this illogical absurdity. It upheld Prop 8.

If the reliably progressive activists on the state Supreme Court couldn't be counted on, where to go? How about going before a sympathetic federal district court judge in San Francisco to challenge Prop 8 as violating the U.S. Constitution?

Federal Judge Vaughn Walker has accepted the Prop 8 opponents' assertion that constitutionality hinges on the attitudes of voters, not legal arguments and precedents. So he has consistently ruled in their favor, turning this trial into another instance of harassment of Prop 8 supporters.

Consider Walker's precedent-breaking rulings in the trial, which began last month:

He decided that Prop 8 proponents should be subjected to questioning about their personal beliefs on marriage and sexuality.

He ordered Prop 8 proponents to disclose private communications about never-used campaign messages.

He directed the Prop 8 campaign to turn over copies of all internal records and e-mail messages on campaign strategy.

He refused not only to demand any of these things of the proposition's opponents, but also to so much as rule on a motion related to that issue.

He subjected one proponent to humiliation for his concerns about homosexuality, as written in private e-mails to friends - in Chinese.

He allowed witnesses for opponents of the proposition to air their "expert" opinions that homosexuals have been discriminated against, that they feel bad when society does not validate their relationships, and that the passage of Prop 8 echoed historical bigotry foisted on society by religious zealots.
Read more here.

Judge Walker’s Skewed Judgment   [Ed Whelan]

According to this column in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, “The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay.”

In terms of his judicial performance in the anti-Proposition 8 case, the bottom-line question that matters isn’t whether Walker is straight or gay.  It’s whether he is capable of ruling impartially.  I have no reason to doubt that there are homosexuals who could preside impartially over this case, just as I have no reason to doubt that there are heterosexuals whose bias in favor of, or against, same-sex marriage would unduly skew their handling of the case.

From the outset, Walker’s entire course of conduct in the anti-Prop 8 case has reflected a manifest design to turn the lawsuit into a high-profile, culture-transforming, history-making, Scopes-style show trial of Prop 8’s sponsors.  Consider his series of controversial—and, in many instances, unprecedented—decisions: 

Take, for example, Walker’s resort to procedural shenanigans and outright illegality in support of his fervent desire to broadcast the trial, in utter disregard of (if not affirmatively welcoming) the harassment and abuse that pro-Prop 8 witnesses would reasonably anticipate.  Walker’s decision was ultimately blocked by an extraordinary (and fully warranted) stay order by the Supreme Court in an opinion that was plainly a stinging rebuke of Walker’s lack of impartiality. Read more here.

'Gay' judge asked to quit Prop. 8 case
Attorney challenges claim Walker's lifestyle 'nonissue' in California court challenge

An activist attorney is challenging the claim that the reported homosexual lifestyle of the judge deciding the constitutionality of California's limitation of marriage to one man and one woman is a "nonissue."

The San Francisco Chronicle reported politicians and lawyers in the city who have dealt with U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker confirmed Walker has never tried to promote or hide his orientation.

The newspaper said a state senator, Mark Leno, who has proposed several times the authorization of same-sex "marriage," described the judge's background as a nonissue.

Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel, disagrees.

"This is no different than having an avid gun collector preside over a Second Amendment case," he said today, "or a frequent user of medical marijuana deciding the legality of medical marijuana."

"Even his fellow judges on the notoriously liberal 9th circuit have been forced to step in and overturn more than one of his inexplicable rulings relative to this case. Based on his demonstrated misbehavior, there's no reason to believe anything will change," Barber said.

As WND has reported, the dispute over the constitutional definition of marriage adopted by voters in the state has implications across the nation.

The case is petitioning a federal court to overturn not just a law, but a constitutional amendment passed by the people and affirmed by the state's Supreme Court. A victory for same-sex marriage advocates in the case could set a precedent for federal courts to overturn every law and amendment in the country currently protecting the traditional definition of marriage.

The law is being defended by private attorneys, because California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, both of whom are named as defendants in the suit, have refused to defend the amendment.Read more here.

Defense Calls First Witness at ‘Gay Marriage’ Trial
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
By Lisa Leff, Associated Press
San Francisco (AP) - The federal laws that prevent gays from serving openly in the military and the government from recognizing same-sex relationships are examples of "legally enforced discrimination," a political scientist testified in a federal trial challenging California's ban on gay marriages.
 
The assertion by Claremont McKenna College professor Kenneth Miller came as he was being cross-examined Monday on his testimony that gays in California enjoy substantial political power as a result of nearly unanimous support from high-ranking elected officials, labor unions, newspapers, corporations and progressive religious groups.
 
"Is there any other minority you can identify that is discharged from the military when they are doing a perfectly good job just because somebody discovers their status?" asked David Boies, a lawyer for two same-sex couples suing to overturn the state's gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8.
 
"I'm not aware of any," Miller answered.
 
But Miller resisted Boies' persistent attempts to get him to put Proposition 8 in the same category as the federal Defense of Marriage Act and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military. Boies asked Miller if he agreed with another political scientist with whom he had co-authored a book chapter that Proposition 8 is inherently discriminatory.
 
"It's differential treatment. Whether it's legally discriminatory, I don't know," Miller said.
 
The question of whether the gay rights movement constitutes a potent political force is central to efforts by lawyers seeking to challenge the state's same-sex marriage ban on grounds that it unlawfully targeted a disadvantaged group.
 
Miller said one indication of the gay rights movement's clout in California was that neither Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nor any other statewide office holders endorsed Proposition 8. But perhaps the best measure of the movement's strength was the $43 million amassed to defeat the gay marriage ban in 2008, he said. That was $3.4 million more than initiative backers raised. Read more here.