Dr. Meyer at the Prop 8 Trial: Stigma and effects on gays and lesbians

[rhythmia]

Parts one and two here.

Reading these two parts of the liveblogging, and then the *comments*, goodness the comments. It's making me want to cry.

Dr. Ilan H. Meyer, Associate Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health is up. He will testify about the stigma and prejudice gay and lesbians individuals face in society.

The testimonies, the sociological and mental health data, the arguments are staggering. And then the community of commenters that have grown up around this liveblogging is just amazing. Different peoples' stories make me want to cry and cheer and rage, and everyone is so supportive of each other.

Comments

[flange5.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy you shared the link to the trial blog&hearts

And can I say how much Dr. Meyer is becoming my hero? He's so amazing in his clear answers to difficult questions, and I wanted to cheer every time he countered the defense's attempts to oversimplify with a clear but nuanced response which somehow through into stark relief just how manipulative the defense's wording was attempting to be. Yay for clearly pointing out disingenuous questioning \o/

And I agree--the commenters are really effective in modeling actual conversation and debate in a respectful way which never gets away from the sheer human impact and stakes of the trial. I'm so glad that this exists, even if I think the legal arguments for the lack of cameras are . . . shall we say, problematic, flimsy and ill-advised? Also, a terrible precedent.

[rhythmia.livejournal.com]

yeah, I was seriously surprised. I think I'm too jaded and cynical from the expectation of what commenting on the internet looks like, because for most people anonymity=free license to be a bigoted jackass on display. >.> It was amazing that some people who clearly came from one of the other websites were generally responded to in a respectful manner, and there was always someone shooting down the hotheads who wanted to spam the pro-8 site and representatives.

I was reading through some other peoples' analyses, and the lack of cameras thing apparently has legal precedent. And some the people currently on the Supreme Court have heebie-jeebies about cameras. But I definitely think it's a bad idea, because this is freaking homosexuality on trial here, and having the witnesses like Helen Zia being on camera for people to see would put a human face on this case. Which, yanno, pro-8 side doesn't want. Dur.

Soooo, guess who's kinda glad that there's the three-day weekend so she doesn't stay up till ridiculous hours of the night reading through all the posts and comments and being on tenterhooks about what's going to happen next? At least I don't follow it in real time like a lot of the people in the community. Work has no internet connection, so I don't go insane. Though I think late next week starts the witnesses for the pro-8 side. Prepare for crazy logic and hateful stuff that doesn't look hateful on the surface, because they have to show that there wasn't animus in their campaign. >.< Oh, go back a post or two, kegom and I are having a really interesting discussion.

<3

[flange5.livejournal.com]

I saw that conversation and now wish I read German to see the differences between the posts ^^;;

But yeah, I totally didn't expect the level of civility I saw in the comments because, I generally find this to be true ^^;

"The Boy has that on a shirt.

I was impressed too by the shooting down of the hotheads--they could clearly see that it wasn't helpful.

I really don't like the lack of cameras--it's so much easier to have everything dismissed because it's not noticed--not allowing recording means that only transcriptions will be around and they don't work as well and have to be sought out. Only those seriously interested will see this, and right now at least, that means that that will happen only through the sites and thus lenses of strongly invested parties, though I think the anti prop 8 people are doing an excellent job--though because of the circumstances, of course I do--it's my only reference, and I'm predisposed toward their view--I imagine the pro8 watchers also feel they have no reason to question their site ^^;;

I just checked today's blog and it's not too long yet. This is good, because I teach again in 15 minutes--for 3 hours ^^;;

because they have to show that there wasn't animus in their campaign.
The comments on today's blog actually clarify--There could be animus all the way--the court only has to find that there's a rationale for prop 8 that COULD be reasonable yet not have animus. it doesn't have anything at all to do with the animus of actual people but of hypothetical ones *__*

Auug. A strange metric, honestly.