Dustin Lance Black's play "8" in L.A. with an all-star cast

"8"- Dustin Lance Black's play about the Prop 8 trial.

Featuring an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Christine Lahti, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon and others, "8" is a play written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and directed by acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner. It is a powerful account of the case filed by the American Federation for Equal Rights (AFER ) in the U.S.

Brad Pitt will join all-star cast of "Prop 8"

The American Foundation for Equal Rights and Broadway Impact announced that the Brad Pitt will join the cast of the West Coast premiere reading of the Proposition 8 play, 8, which will be live-streamed via YouTube this Saturday, beginning at 7:45 p.m. Pacific.

The staged reading is an unprecedented account of the U.S. district court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the suit filed by AFER to overturn Prop. 8, which stripped same-sex couples in California of the fundamental freedom to marry.

Brad Pitt will star as Judge Vaughn R. Walker, the man who found Prop. 8 unconstitutional, joining an already star-studded cast that includes George Clooney, Kevin Bacon, Jane Lynch, John C. Reilly, Chris Colfer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cleve Jones, George Takei, The Simpsons’ Yeardley Smith, and many more.

The same-sex couples at the heart of the piece will be played by Christine Lahti and Jamie Lee Curtis (who will star as plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, a lesbian couple together for 11 years and the parents of four boys) and Glee’s Matthew Morrison and White Collar’s Matt Bomer (who will play plaintiffs Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, a gay couple together over 10 years).

The production — sponsored by Bryan Singer, director of The Usual Suspects and X-Men — takes place Saturday at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, and proceeds will benefit the fight for marriage equality at the federal level. The free live stream of the event is unprecedented for a cast of this magnitude.
(source)

Prop 8 backers to ask 9th Circuit for larger panel ruling

The proponents of Proposition 8 intend to appeal for an en banc ruling from the full Ninth Circuit Court. Earlier this month a three-judge panel of Ninth Circuit members voted to uphold the overturn of Prop 8.  Now the haters want MORE 9th Circuit judges to hear an appeal.

Chris Geidner explains at Metro Weekly:

Usually, en banc review involves all of the active judges on the court, but the Ninth Circuit -- due to the more than 20 active judges on the circuit -- has adopted a unique "limited en banc" procedure in which all the active Ninth Circuit judges vote whether en banc consideration will be given. That will be the request made by today's filing.

If a majority of the court supports en banc consideration, then the chief judge of the circuit, Judge Alex Kozinski, and 10 randomly selected appellate judges from the circuit will hear the en banc appeal, which can involve briefing and oral arguments.

After that decision is reached, theoretically, a party dissatisfied with an en banc ruling of the Ninth Circuit can ask for the full Ninth Circuit to review the en banc panel's decision, but the court has not agreed to do so since adopting the "limited en banc" procedure.

The never ending saga continues...

Proposition 8 is unconstitutional... imagine

I'll preface this by saying - I've always had a rich and vivid imagination.

"What we can imagine, we can make real."

Forward kids. No fear.

National Organization of Marriage chair asserts Prop 8 wasn't just about gays

Recently-appointed National Organization For Marriage chair John Eastman tries to pretend that Prop 8 speaks to more than just same-sex marriage, since it also prevents polygamy.

David Boies is having none of it. This is called a smack down.

US Supreme Court may not hear Prop 8 appeal

"Given the reasoning of the Ninth Circuit's decision and its focus on the specific circumstances that led to the enactment of Prop 8 in California, it may be a tall order for the supporters of Prop 8 to persuade the Supreme Court to take the case."

"The Supreme Court normally only accepts cases when different federal appellate courts have reached opposite conclusions on the same legal issues, or where a decision has broad national implications. The Ninth Circuit's California-focused decision presents neither of those circumstances. Unless the Supreme Court breaks with its own tradition and intervenes in the case, it's possible that wedding bells will be ringing in California again before the end of the year." - Shannon Minter, legal counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
(via JMG)

BREAKING NEWS: Ninth Circuit Prop 8 Ruling expected Tuesday

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's public information office expects a ruling on Tuesday, Feb. 7 in the Perry v. Brown case challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8.

Get ready, kids.