(Designer) Shoe's on the Other Foot

While I think the Supreme Court is a bunch of pathetic cowards for refusing to allow cameras in the Prop 8 trial going on in San Francisco, I do take it as a sign of enormous progress that it's now the anti-gay people who are too ashamed to have their faces shown in public rather than the other way around. (One need only watch films of bar raids in the 1960s to see what I mean.) You can run and to some degree you can hide. But in due time what's right will prevail, and there's nothing you can do about it. Clearly you recognize this or else you wouldn't be so ashamed to stand up for what you supposedly believe is right.

Here's what Lorri L. Jean, chief executive officer of L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, had to say about the SCOTUS ruling:

“It is very troubling that the Supreme Court has decided to prohibit, even on a delayed basis, any video transmission of the proceedings in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. In doing so, the Court has failed to recognize that where matters so basic to the dignity and equality of millions of Americans are at issue, it is even more imperative than usual that all of the constitutional arguments, pro and con, be exposed to the greatest possible public scrutiny.

Given its widespread interest and potentially historic implications, there couldn’t be a more ideal case with which to launch the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ new initiative to allow video cameras in the courtroom, as Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker confirmed in his order of only last week.

Moreover, it is a new height in gall, but also extraordinarily telling, that the backers of Proposition 8, who only months ago were spending millions of dollars to broadcast their lies and distortions about marriage equality up and down the state of California, are now the ones petitioning the courts to shield their anti-gay arguments from public view. They clearly know full well that without the appeals to fear and prejudice, which have become their stock-in-trade, they have no case to make against fairness and equal treatment for all Americans. But they should make no mistake. Whether or not cameras are there to record it, they will not be able to hide for very long the poverty of their arguments, or the injustice of their cause.”