This from last Friday’s Washington Post article about the Proposition 8 trial…
Witness: Gay marriage made her feel like family
SAN FRANCISCO — Getting married brought big changes to the lives of author Helen Zia and her partner Lia Shigemura.
At family reunions, funerals and other gatherings, the Oakland couple found their relationship much more accepted after their parents could start saying they had a daughter-in-law.
“My mother, an immigrant from China, she really doesn’t get what ‘partner’ is,” Zia, 57, testified Friday during the fifth day of a federal civil trial challenging California’s same-sex marriage ban.
“Marriage made it very clear that I was family, that we were family, and I was where I belonged,” she said.
…
Brian Raum, a defense lawyer representing sponsors of Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage ballot measure approved in 2008, objected to Zia being called to the witness stand. He argued that her individual experience was irrelevant to the trial’s constitutional questions.
Your honor…I object to the lives of real people being dragged into this… So not only do Proposition 8 supporters not want the country to hear their testimony, they don’t want the country to hear the testimony of same-sex couples either. Two things they would like very much for everyone to ignore, whether it’s about marriage or equal opportunity or hate crimes, are their bigotry and our humanity.
