P. O. Box 633131
San Diego, CA
92163
(858) 335-6615
April 12, 2012
Marriage Equality Activists Face Trial April 30
April 27 “Evening with the Equality Nine” Highlights
Their Civil Disobedience
SAN DIEGO — Six members of the “Equality Nine,” a group of
marriage equality activists who were arrested on August 19, 2010 for going to
the San Diego County Clerk’s office and demanding that marriage licenses be
issued to same-sex couples, will go on trial Monday, April 30, 2012, 9 a.m.
before Judge Joan P. Weber in Department 51 of the San Diego County Superior
Court, 220 West Broadway, fourth floor, in downtown San Diego.
The San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (S.A.M.E.),
which sponsored the original demonstration at which the arrests took place and
has coordinated community support for the Equality Nine, will host an event,
“An Evening with the Equality Nine,” Friday, April 27, 7 to 9 p.m. at Pleasures
& Treasures, 2525 University Avenue (at Arizona Street) in North Park. The
event will be a combination community forum and social which will give people a
chance to meet the Equality Nine and their supporters.
Among the speakers at the event will be Equality Nine member
Cecile Veillard; Jersey Deutsch, activist with S.A.M.E., Occupy San Diego and
the marriage equality outreach group Canvass for a Cause (CFAC); and Eric
Isaacson, a local attorney who was involved in the litigation in which both a
trial court and an federal appeals court have declared Proposition 8, California’s
voter-approved ban on legal recognition of same-sex marriages,
unconstitutional. An attorney representing one of the Equality Nine is also
scheduled to speak.
Community co-sponsors of the event include CFAC, Activist
San Diego (ASD), the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice (SDCPJ), and the
Rainbow Action Group of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church, which is
providing refreshments. S.A.M.E. is also asking supporters of marriage equality
and the Equality Nine to demonstrate outside the court building at 220 West
Broadway from 8 to 9 a.m. on the opening day of the trial, April 30.
“We have to pressure the system at all levels, from local
government to President Obama,” said S.A.M.E. member Chuck Stemke, one of the
Equality Nine. “Unfortunately, the large and exciting movement that erupted
across the state and county after the narrow passage of Proposition 8 has
declined. But that movement compelled Obama to lift the ban on Gays [serving
openly] in the military — more cooperation than most oppressed groups in
society have received. But the President has not lifted a finger on marriage
equality. He continues to be publicly opposed … We need to continue the
struggle against Proposition 8 in the streets, inside the courthouses and in
the streets outside the courthouses. We cannot let this issue fade from public
consciousness.”
Recalling the August 19, 2010 demonstration, Sean Bohac,
another S.A.M.E. and Equality Nine member, explained that the group’s goals
were, “first: to encourage the County Clerk to issue marriage licenses to the
same-sex couples who had appointments to be married that day.” At the time,
U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker had already issued his landmark opinion that
Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and could not legally be enforced, but the
Court of Appeals then issued a “stay,” a legal delay that has prevented Judge
Walker’s decision from taking effect. The stay remains in place even though a
three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals upheld Judge Walker’s ruling by a two-thirds
vote.
“Even though Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional,
unjustified and wholly discriminatory in a federal court, the same court
blocked same-sex marriages for the duration of the appeals process,” said Chuck
Stemke. “A year and a half later, it is this stay which continues to block Gay
and Lesbian couples from getting married in California. We wanted to directly
challenge the system, specifically then-County Clerk David Butler … to do the
right thing by upholding his oath to serve the public equally. And if he
wouldn’t do it, we wanted all of San Diego to know that the LGBT [Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender] community is no longer willing to wait at the mercy of
this system.”
In order to challenge the stay, S.A.M.E. members came to the
County Clerk’s office on August 19, 2010 with three same-sex couples there to
demand marriage licenses, including Equality Nine members Michael Anderson and
Brian Baumgardner. Two other couples actually had appointments to get married
that day, booked with the County Clerk’s office before the stay was imposed.
One of the couples, Tony and Tyler Dylan-Hyde, came with a letter (drafted by
Tyler, a licensed attorney) explaining why, in their view, the County Clerk
could marry them despite the stay.
According to Bohac, if they couldn’t obtain marriage
licenses for the same-sex couples in their group, their second objective was
“to make sure that the people of California knew that we were angry that we
were being discriminated against on the basis of a law that had been found
unconstitutional by a federal judge.” When they went to the clerk’s office,
they were blocked from entering and met with 50 San Diego County Sheriff’s
deputies in full riot gear, and ultimately nine S.A.M.E. protesters were
arrested.
The Equality Nine are being charged with two misdemeanors:
failure to disperse, and interference with the business of a public agency. The
second charge is based on California Penal Code section 602.1(b), a law which
in the immediately following second (c) states that “Section b shall not apply
to any person on the premises who is engaging in activities protected by the
California Constitution or the Constitution of the United States.” Though Judge
Weber has refused to allow the defendants to present this issue at trial, the
issue of whether a law that specifically exempts constitutionally protected
free speech from its provisions can be used against political demonstrators is
likely to be a major issue on appeal if the Equality Nine lose in the trial
court.
“What the prosecution is essentially arguing is that we were
preventing ‘equal access,’ which is the most ironic of terms,” S.A.M.E. and
Equality Nine member Cecile Veillard said. Indeed, the Equality Nine have
argued that it was they who were denied
“equal access” to the business of a public agency when the request of three
same-sex couples for marriage licenses on August 19, 2010 was met with arrests
from sheriff’s deputies in full riot gear.
Some Equality Nine members believe their prosecution signals
a get-tough attitude towards public demonstrations of all kinds on the part of
city and county officials in general, and San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith
in particular. Goldsmith is not only prosecuting the Equality Nine — despite at
least 3,500 petition signatures collected by S.A.M.E. and CFAC asking him to
drop the case — he is also prosecuting members of Occupy San Diego who were
arrested for violating the arbitrary and often inconsistent orders of police
during the occupation of Civic Center Plaza.
