CA Supreme Court Asks Schwarzenegger & Brown About Prop 8 Defense Refusal

Karen Ocamb reports that the California Supreme Court has ordered Gov. Schwarzenegger and AG Jerry Brown to explain why they have refused to defend Proposition 8. The pair had until 9am today to respond. The Pacific Justice Institute was expected to rebut their response by noon today. Ocamb notes that "theoretically" the Court could order Schwarzenegger and Brown to defend Prop 8. More on this as it develops...

UPDATE: Governator tells Court to piss off.

Happy Faces At Prop 8 Closing

Karen Obamb provides this photo of attorney David Boies and Prop 8 plaintiffs Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami during a break in today's closing arguments. Things are apparently going very well. Ocamb notes: "Prop 8 proponent attorney Charles Cooper is up now and there’s considerable laughter in the ceremonial overflow room at some of his arguments." Follow on Twitter here.

Former LA Police Chief Darryl Gates Dies

Former Los Angeles police chief Darryl Gates, whose legacy includes his disastrous handling of the Rodney King beating and subsequent citywide riots, has died at the age of 83.

As chief during the 1980s, Gates earned a reputation for dealing with gangs, drugs and street crime with a mix of tough, paramilitary force and innovation, establishing the first Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, unit and deploying helicopters to help patrol the sprawling city. But he came under fierce criticism after the violent March 3, 1991, arrest of Rodney King, a black parolee whose beating by Los Angeles police was captured on videotape and broadcast around the world as evidence of LAPD racism and brutality. Four of the officers were put on trial for King's beating and their acquittal in April 1992 by an all-white jury touched off three days of the worst urban riots in modern U.S. history, leaving 53 people dead. Gates, who was roundly criticized for attending a fund-raising dinner in the first hours of rioting, came under heavy pressure to resign and stepped down in June of that year.

Veteran Los Angeles-based gay reporter Karen Ocamb recalls Gates' notorious homophobia.

[T]he hell experienced by gay officers inside the LAPD was made public when Mitch Grobeson filed his famous lawsuit in 1988, describing harassment and being left without back up in a dangerous situation. Gay attorney Jon Davidson, now Legal Director for Lambda Legal, made sure Grobeson and other gays testified before Christopher Commission about the harassment they faced under Gate’s command – and the abuse the LGBT community suffered at the hand of LAPD cops. One interesting point from the Christopher Commission Report – which Gates threw down and stomped on – was this little tidbit: one of the Mobile Digital Transmissions (MDTs) referred to gays as “NHI” – “No Human Involved.”

Read Ocamb's exhaustive recounting of Gates' career. It's a fascinating look at the evolution of gay-police relations in Los Angeles.

Pre-Trial Hearings In Olson/Boies Prop 8 Challenge Begin Today

The Olson/Boies challenge to Proposition 8 gets its official start today in a pre-trial hearing in a San Francisco federal court. Karen Ocamb at LGBT POV reports:

Today may mark the beginning of the end of the ugly Prop 8 as attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies lay out their federal case for why the California constitutional amendment is unconstitutional. The pre-trial evidentiary hearing starts at 10:00am in the San Francisco courtroom of District Court Judge Judge Vaughn R. Walker. Olson and Boies will argue that the case should go to trial. Walker has already set a trial date of Jan. 11 and some reporters and bloggers, such as Patrick Range McDonald at the LA Weekly, want the trial to be televised. Walker will consider that issue today, as well as others such as scheduling motions on evidence and witnesses.

Ocamb has posted a detailed analysis of the issues before the court today. The judge has indicated that he wants a speedy trial, evidence perhaps, that he is eager for the case to move to a higher court.

HomoQuotable - Karen Ocamb

"With all due respect to Cleve Jones and David Mixner, who I've known and covered for many years, I think we seriously need to question the wisdom of convening a march on Washington this October. Yes, LGBT people are angry and disappointed that President Barack Obama hasn't lived up to his promises and our expectations - something David knows about intimately, having been failed by his one-time friend Bill Clinton. Cleve, too, knows deeply about government scorn and neglect, having created the profound remembrance of those we lost as a result - the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

"And I understand the call for a march. I am among Obama's critics - I am stunned that he has so flagrantly forgotten, despite being a constitutional scholar, that equality is the first core founding principle of this country, and as leaders in the civil rights movement so aptly pointed out - "justice delayed is justice denied." [snip]

"For people who are concerned about poverty and social and economic issues as I know David Mixner and Cleve Jones are - it seems an odd time to re-direct resources and attention without something close to an assured outcome.

"Given their considerable talent for inspiring others, I would humbly request that David and Cleve consider shifting their attention to helping LGBT people, people with HIV/AIDS and our allies (labor, teachers, nurses) at the state and local levels survive this very difficult time while also pressing hard for full equality. Linking arms to confront the problems immediately before us only strengthens our sense of community as we all become foot soldiers marching to fulfill the promises of the American Dream." - Journalist/activist Karen Obamb, writing for the Bilerico Project. Read the entire essay.