I just received this report from Bill May, Chairman of Catholics for the Common Good:
To summarize the first week of the trial about traditional marriage and marriage supporters, the plaintiffs have been trying to make a case that there is no rational reason to restrict marriage to just a man and a woman. On the opening day, we heard from the plaintiffs, two same-sex couples. They were followed by “expert” witnesses who turned out to be same-sex “marriage” advocates. One thing that has really impressed me is the great job ProtectMarriage.com lawyers are doing in poking holes in the testimony of the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses, both undermining their credibility and extracting concessions that conflicted with the points they were trying to make.
On Thursday afternoon, January 14, the plaintiffs called a clinical socio-medical sciences associate professor, Ilan H. Meyer, from Columbia University, to claim that Prop 8 contributes to stigmatization of gays and is harmful to their mental health. As the Alliance Defense Fund lawyer Dale Schowengerdt put it, “The theory seems to be that if California redefines marriage, society will be more accepting of their relationships, and thus their stress level will decrease.”
One example of stigmatization Meyer used to make his point is that “Young children do not aspire to be domestic partners. Marriage is a common, socially approved goal.” He later added, “We are raised to think that there are certain things that we want to achieve in life. Proposition 8 says that gays and lesbians cannot reach that goal.”
On Friday morning, Michael Lamb, a professor of developmental psychology from the University of Cambridge in England, was called to the stand to cite significant evidence from research that mothers and fathers do not really matter and that there is no difference in outcomes for children raised by same-sex couples.
On cross examination, Lamb had to admit that studies showing the importance of fathers and the importance of being raised by a child’s married biological parents were accurate in their findings. In fact, he ended up reluctantly agreeing that children are better off raised by their own mother and father than by divorced or single parents. In addition, he acknowledge that there are direct quantifiable benefits for children with married mothers and fathers over cohabitating couples, or homes with stepparents.
It became evident that the studies Lamb cited compared two-woman couples with a mixture of all other parenting alternatives – cohabitating couples, single fathers, single mothers, and married mothers and fathers – not a valid representation of what he was trying to portray. The defense lawyers continued to point out numerous flaws in various other studies he used to support his testimony.
The work being done by the lawyers representing the supporters of Prop 8 is outstanding.
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