Oh, the world is a crazy place when the man who helped turn Bush into a President is fighting for federal gay marriage recognition while gay organizations are pushing against it.
Yesterday I wrote how Ted Olson and David Boies, the men who argued on opposite sides of Bush v. Gore, filed a federal challenge to Prop 8 through the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Their motives appear to be genuine, but a number of gay organizations are leery not of Olson and Boies so much as the timing of a federal challenge.
In a joint press release issued by the ACLU, HRC, NGLTF, GLAAD, GLAD, Lambda Legal, Freedom to Marry, and others, the gay organizations are saying that now is not the time:
In response to the California Supreme Court decision allowing Prop 8 to stand, four LGBT legal organizations and five other leading national LGBT groups are reminding the LGBT community that ill-timed lawsuits could set the fight for marriage back
Olson and Boies knew of the objections, but file the challenge anyway. About his clients and other gay couples Olson said that “we can’t tell them to wait, what, five years” for their state to approve same-sex marriage. He also acknowledged that it could take two years for this case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
This video really does give a great breakdown not just of the federal challenge, but how Prop 8 was upheld as well. Both men also respond to questions about their real motives, whether they know any gay people, and what to expect from the challenge.
Something about this feels like Obama, doesn’t it? One of the things he excels at is politically uniting people from remarkably disparate places . . . .
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