Tuesday Morning at Proposition 8 Trial

It is interesting to see how the LATimes.com (Maura Dolan) and the Associated Press (Lisa Leff) coverage of the Proposition 8 trial are headlined and opened in a way to try to make the plaintiff's case for them. From Dolan’s report...

A political scientist hired by defenders of Proposition 8 admitted under cross-examination today that prejudice played a role in the passage of the 2008 [marriage amendment].

"At least some people voted for Proposition 8 on the basis of anti-gay stereotypes," Claremont McKenna College professor Kenneth Miller testified during the third week of a federal trial on the constitutionality of Proposition 8.

I know that is supposed to matter (even though it shouldn't), but Miller is making an assumption. People voted for the California Marriage Amendment for any number of reasons, just like legislators vote for or against any given piece of legislation.

[Much more after the jump - click below.]

David Boies, who cross-examined Miller, read aloud written statements Miller made that said minorities were vulnerable to ballot initiatives, and federal courts needed to step in and protect them.

Of course, if someone's rights are being attacked. There is no right to a state-issued license. The plaintiff's side admitted as much when they said getting rid of state marriage licensing was an acceptable move.

Boies pressed Miller to say that Roman Catholicism was the most populous religion in California, with about 30% of the state's population identifying as Catholic, followed by Southern Baptists.

That people identify as "Catholic" or "Southern Baptist" says absolutely nothing about their attitude towards homosexual people or homosexuality. I know people who are very open about being "Roman Catholic" yet they are staunch "gay rights" supporters.

In Lisa Leff’s report, we get this...

A political scientist testifying for the sponsors of California's same-sex marriage measure acknowledges that gays and lesbians face significant discrimination in the workplace.

Claremont McKenna College Professor Kenneth Miller said under cross-examination Tuesday that he did not know how frequently gay Americans are fired or harassed at work but assumed it happens often.

Why does he assume this? Probably because we hear complaining about it constantly. But how many of us have actually seen this happen? California has strong laws against this, and I've worked in some pretty conservative workplaces and haven't seen it, even against very flamboyant and out people. If anything, people are more afraid to speak up about being Southern Baptist than having a homosexual orientation. How about getting the official state statistics on workplace discrimination, instead of asking people for their perceptions?

Regardless, Proposition 8 isn't about the workplace.

There are good reasons to support the bride+groom requirement in state marriage licensing that have nothing to any dislike of homosexual behavior or homosexual people.

If we must toss out the amendment because "animus" was expressed by someone towards homosexual people, then the same reasoning compels us to toss out laws against polygamy, because at the same time these people were expressing "animus" towards homosexuality, they were expressing it against polygamy as well, and polygamy is practiced by Muslims, who certainly qualify as a minority that has been disadvantaged and faced animus. They have much less power in California that homosexual people. And there are a lot of Muslims that can testify that they were born Muslim.