And the plaintiffs "rest"

The plaintiffs -- those challenging Proposition 8 as an unconstitutional move to take equally protected rights away from a "vulnerable minority" -- rested their case in federal court in San Francisco today and the testimony shifted to the "expert witnesses" put forward by the defense. (And I DO use the words "expert witness" loosely!)

Here's a great summary by Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign on what the testimony so far has demonstrated:

“This evidence is not just a smoking gun. It was an arsenal of incendiary devices directed at the LGBT community and voters. This is how the Prop 8 side won — through fear and lies.” -- Rick Jacobs

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Rick Jacobs, Chair of the Courage Campaign Institute, issued the following statement on the Prop 8 campaign videos and documents introduced into evidence in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial. The new evidence shows how the Prop 8 campaign tried to link marriage equality to incest, bestiality, pedophilia and polygamy:

“This morning’s evidence made the Prop 8 side’s strategy crystal clear — use fear and lies to promote hate. It is horrifying that Prop 8 proponents would compare marriage equality to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and imply that marriage equality will open the door to pedophilia, incest and bestiality.”

“Ron Prentice, Andrew Pugno and their Prop 8 team — with the highly capable and apparently deeply cynical leadership of Frank Schubert — created a permanent campaign to scare voters into believing that same-sex marriage would threaten children, undermine America and lead to every form of illicit behavior imaginable.”

“This evidence is not just a smoking gun. It was an arsenal of incendiary devices directed at the LGBT community and voters. This is how the Prop 8 side won — through fear and lies.”

“Finally, this morning we saw indisputable, documented evidence in the form of emails and videos that Ron Prentice and Protect Marriage coordinated closely and relied upon the Catholic Church, the LDS Church, the Family Research Council, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown and the National Organization for Marriage to get Prop. 8 on the ballot and to win through a campaign of lies.”

“Last week, the Supreme Court erased decades of precedent by ruling that corporations have the same rights as people when it comes to speech. Let’s hope that the court will as readily see that LGBT people have at least the same rights as corporations and surely the same rights as other people.”

Via the Prop 8 Trial Tracker web site, the Courage Campaign Institute has brought the proceedings to the public in real time, garnering more than 1.1 million views and helping fuel an online community of “Trial Trackers” posting more than 11,000 comments to date. Check it out here.