Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: Karen Ocamb
September 16th, 2010
Karen Ocamb of LGBT POV is also taking issue with a fundraising letter, this time from HRC’s Joe Solmonese:
What is Joe Solmonese smoking? The President of the Human Right Campaign sent out a fundraising email Wednesday morning that appears to blame the possible loss of the Democrats majority in Congress on District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional – and on the National Organization for Marriage:
“Extremists’ hatred is surging in the wake of the Prop. 8 decision. The National Organization for Marriage is spreading vicious anti-gay lies. Control of Congress could be up in the air.”
I realize that fear-based fundraising letters are a traditional tactic to draw attention to one’s cause. In this case, HRC’s political action committee is trying to raise money for their designated races – Democrats Tarryl Clark (challenging Rep. Michele Bachmann), the terrific LGBT ally Patrick Murphy who’s lead the House repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Rep. Joe Sestak from Pennsylvania, openly gay Providence, Rhode Island Mayor David Cicilline, longtime LGBT ally Sen. Russ Feingold, and Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias who is running for Senate.
The problem is – HRC may have just provided opponents of LGBT equality talking points and quotes. Not to mention that HRC is just plain wrong.
August 10th, 2010
When Judge Walker released his ruling overturning Proposition 8, he also released a number of documents and video depositions of witnesses. Karen Ocamb is reviewing the information and today is looking at William Tam, the defense witness who was so disastrous that the plaintiffs put him as their own.
During the Tam deposition, conducted in San Francisco the morning of Dec. 1, 2009 by Ethan Dettmer, a partner of Ted Olson’s law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Tam admitted that he had spoken several times in public venues as well as conducted media interviews at the behest of Protect Marriage. On this edited tape, the he does not mention being afraid at any of public appearances, nor does he express fear about being a witness at trial.
This tape was played in court on Jan. 13, after which AFER issued a statement on the Supreme Court’s decision not to allow cameras in the court in which they discuss Tam’s deposition and release the letter Tam wrote which clearly shows animus toward gays (example: “If we lose, this will very likely happen……1. Same-Sex marriage will be a permanent law in California. One by one, other states would fall into Satan’s hand….”).
Additionally – the juxtaposition between what Dettmer reads into the record about Tam’s references to Satan and the way he was clearly coached to reply to expected question is just extraordinary.
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