Queer Town: Big Media Wants Full Access to Prop. 8 Trial

We're almost finished with 2009 and 2010 is already shaping up to be a very interesting year -- at least for gay and lesbian folks.

Patrick Range McDonald

Proposition 8 protestors in West Hollywood in October, 2008.

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Queer Town sounded the alarm a few weeks ago about the need to allow TV cameras inside the courtroom of the Proposition 8 federal trial in San Francisco, and now a coalition of media heavyweights, which includes all of the major TV networks, is taking up that cause.

We're not surprised.

The trial not only involves whether or not Proposition 8, the ballot measure that took away the existing right of gays and lesbians to legally marry in California, is unconstitutional, but it may have a huge impact on other same sex marriage bans across the country.

Today, Variety Managing Editor Ted Johnson goes into the details of big media's push to allow TV cameras in U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's courtroom.

"In a memorandum filed today with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco," writes Johnson, "attorneys Thomas Burke and Jeff Glasser, representing the media coalition, cite ample examples where cameras have been allowed in courtroom with non-disruptive results, and even point to a task force's recommendation that cameras should continued to be allowed in California courts in the aftermath of the O.J. Simpson criminal trial."

Unsurprisingly, supporters of Proposition 8 are against major television coverage.

Hot shot lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies are leading the fight to overturn Proposition 8. American Foundation for Equal Rights, a Los Angeles-based, Hollywood-connected pro-gay marriage group, hired the attorneys. The trial is set to begin on Monday, January 11.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.