Who Bought Prop 8? Court Rules Campaign Fianance Records Should Remain Public

The names of the donors behind California’s prop 8 initiative will stay on the secretary of state’s website.

The L.A. Times reports,” A federal judge in Sacramento ruled against ProtectMarriage.com and the National Organization for Marriage in a nearly 3-year-old lawsuit, saying the groups failed to prove they should be exempt from state campaign disclosure laws.”

According to the Times,” ProtectMarriage.com is a coalition of religious and conservative groups that sponsored and campaigned for the state constitutional amendment known as Proposition 8, which was approved by 52% of California voters and has been subject to continuing court challenges by same-sex marriage supporters. The National Organization for Marriage solicited donations that were used to qualify the measure for the November 2008 ballot.

The two groups, which between them raised the lion’s share of the $43.3 million spent in support of Proposition 8, said their donors were targeted for boycotts, hate mail and threats after their names appeared on the secretary of state’s website as part of required campaign finance reports. They filed a suit in January 2009 to have them removed.”

San Fransisco’s Deputy City Attorney says the winners in the case are the people of California.

Like everything Prop 8, you can expect an appeals to be filed soon.

An anti-marriage group in Washington recently lost a similar case there as well.

Sign The Petition! Let The Governor Of California Know that “Rape is Rape!”

On August 31, 2009 James Hornik was raped by another male in Hollywood, California. Hornik found himself in great need of police assistance and called on the LAPD, trusting that they would help him in his sudden predicament. When asked if he could press charges against his attacker, the LAPD officers simply responded, “A gay man can’t be raped”.

You can read more of James’s story here and here.

With just a few more weeks to file his lawsuit, he is asking for your help. Please sign onto the petition and let the Governor of California know that you believe in victims rights, not matter what their sexual identity.

Hornik is also needing help with the costly lawsuit as well. If his case does go to court it could set a precedence for the rest of the country. Donations can’t be sent to the law offices of:
Robert C. Moest
2530 Wilshire Blvd, Second Floor
Santa Monica, ca. 90403

Prop (H)8 Watch: Trial tapes to continue collecting dust

Those tapes that were supposed to be released on September 30th? Yeah it’s not going to happen.  SDGLN.com reports that “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked the unsealing of the Proposition 8 trial videos after an appeal was filed by supporters of the California law that took away marriage equality. The appeals court did not set a date for a hearing on the appeals motion.”

The author of the piece puts it best..

“This is the umpteenth court action that further delays any action on federal Judge Vaughn Walker’s historic ruling on Aug. 4, 2010, that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.”

Guess we will have to wait for the Dustin Lance Black version after all.

Still Fighting! An interview with James Hornik and why you should still care

Two weeks ago a facebook friend suggested that I friend a 30-something year old equality activist living in Ventura California.  On the evening that I  logged onto his page it was clear something was wrong.  James Hornik, who had been spending time in Las Vegas to help with some activist work had posted a somewhat cryptic message.  The message led hundreds if not thousands of facebook freinds, family, and strangers to believe that Hornik was in danger or worse.  Thankfully, as we would learn a few days later, there was no foul play involved.  James had  left Vegas on foot and had walked home. He arrived a few days later in pain but safe.

His story really isn’t about the few days that strangers spent praying for his safe return though.  The pain that Hornik has had to endure every day since he was raped at a hostel in Hollywood in 2009 far outweighs any happy ending that some might feel occurred with his return.  Following his assault he was denied a rape kit,  told by an Los Angeles police officer that “rape didn’t occure between two males” and  arrested for a crime that he would later be found innocent of committing.  As a result Hornik has turned his pain into power by not only filing a lawsuit against those who refused him his basic rights as a victim, but he has taken his message and story to the streets in hopes of helping others.

Hornik’s story could be any LGBTQ individual’s story, especially in rural areas like Idaho, where law enforcement may not be sufficiently trained to deal with issues like male rape and LGBTQ sexual assault victims.

The Idaho agenda was able to catch up with Hornik over the weekend…

Idaho Agenda:  So I guess first off I’m glad you are still with us.  When was it that you discovered you had so many people worried about you because of your last facebook post from Vegas?

James Hornik: When I left the hotel that morning headed home for California, I chose to pull the battery out of my phone after making my last post of facebook and then left it laying on the bathroom counter as I walked out the door. I had no clue anyone had event taken notice let alone that hundreds would post and thousands would be praying and meditating for my safe return.

Idaho Agenda: What is your reaction to the show of support you received while you were headed back to Cali as well as the vast amounts of people releived to find that you were safe?

James Hornik: I was shocked and stunned to say the very least. It took me all day and part of the night to look over and read every single one of the comments, emails, text’s and instant msg’s.  Much of the time I found myself fighting back or wiping away tears for a number of reasons, partly out of sheer amazement that my voice had reached so far, touched so many, and had people from all around the world discussing and debating me; also partly out of shame and sorrow because I realized how many people I had hurt or worried by making my choices in the heat of the moment.

Idaho Agenda: In a paragraph or so explain your organization and it’s goals..when did you organize it etc.

James Hornik: Equality4Everyone.org & facebook cause page are both in their infancy. As of now I am the only full time employee, tho many have donated their time along the way when my workload reaches a level no two armed human can bare alone. The ultimate goal of this organization is to build a strong following of like minded individuals from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and belief’s that share in their commitment to the fight for EQUALITY of all HUMANS. Our ultimate vision would start with a hate free community center offering counseling, testing, advocacy, and social support. From there we would like to expend into a greater geographical location and offer more in-depth and specialized services from our community and beyond.

Idaho Agenda: What spurred you to want to reach out to help others?

James Hornik: I was a victim of rape followed by being a victim of discrimination, a victim twice in once day, and countless people stood by and did nothing. That’s when I realized that if nobody else shall step in, speak up and fight for what’s right, then I am left with no choice but to do it myself, and here we are.

Idaho Agenda: Since the rape and its fall out, what’s your support system like? Who do you turn to when you need to talk about it?

James Hornik: Many of my friends distanced themselves from me after the rape and especially during the lengthy criminal trial that followed.  Needless to say, the list has grown shorter since I have chosen to take on this fight.  For the most part I rely heavily on my mother and my weekly session with a counselor in Santa Barbara as my outlet to turn to.  Although I must not down play the wonderful people on facebook, they have shown me I have friends and family far beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

Idaho Agenda: Where is your case at right now as far as the federal court system goes?

James Hornik: My case is still in the discovery phase, but time is quickly running out to raise the funding for depositions and other such court related costs. Frankly speaking time is so short I am in somewhat of a panic at this point. Trial date is set for may 12th 2012.

Idaho Agenda: If the case does make it all the way through the court system and you win do you think that will help victims elsewhere?

James Hornik: This case has the chance to set new precedent by being one of the first where a jury is asked to decide if you and I are entitled to a rape kit through key issue number three. It’s worded as follows: Does plaintiffs claim regarding the alleged failure to obtain a “rape kit” rise to the level of a constitutional violation?

I myself can answer that very simply.  We all have the right to equal treatment under the law, and we all have the right to justice.  Those two things were denied to me when I so adamantly demanded a rape kit and treatment for rape by 4 LAPD officers, countless medical staff at Cedars-Sinai, and also by The L.A. County jail system on the basis I’m an adult man, and I’m gay.  It all boils down to discrimination based on someone’s personal biases, and that my friends is illegal.

Idaho Agenda: What advice do you have for other victims of rape and assault in general and for those who maybe live in areas where law enforcement isn’t equipped/educated to handle lgbtq rape cases.

James Hornik: RAPE IS RAPE….Repeatedly make your claims known, demand a rape kit, do this to everyone who will listen, even to those who will not or seem as though they aren’t listening. Make it known loud and clear that your rights are being violated if u are refused treatment on some discriminatory grounds such as age, race or sexual orientation.  Demand badge numbers and names, demand to speak to those in charge such as lead investigators, sergeant in charge, the watch commander, hospital doctors or the facility head of staff, any and all doctors or nurses, psychologists, or anyone and everyone who will be obligated to help u or at least make note of it in your chart or case file as was done in my case. This is my only proof since the police take the stand it never happened. So basically a handful of people from all walks of life shared in my hallucination, or so they would like the courts to believe. Then file all the proper complaints against those who violated your rights and hunker down for a head long fight against old ways of thinking, stereotypes, and lots of homophobia.

Idaho Agenda: What’s life for James like on a day to day basis?

James Hornik: Some days are great, filled with countless blessings, others are terrible fraught with set back after set back. Many high and low extremes with few in-betweens. I spend a lot of time networking, looking for new connections. Telling my story is now almost a daily job, I hand out hand signed copies of my letters, and spend many countless hours in search for funding. Very little of my day beyond a shower and one meal a per day are dedicated to me or my needs. Some days random people walk up to me, shake my hand or give me a hug and say things like keep up the fight, other days people see me and slow down to taunt me, toss drink cups at me, or protest out in front of my house and use slogans that use the word “Faggot” and my name “james hornik” in the same sentence.  So day to day life for me is a struggle indeed, some days I fear getting out of bed and walking out the door, others I’m determined nothing will slow me down.

Idaho Agenda: How can people help with your case financially?

James Hornik: With the over one thousand people on my friends list alone it would be as simple as each person making a small pool amongst their friends at a church group, a community center, their work place, or some other place great minds gather, and then each of those people collectively gathering 10 to 40 dollars and we would have the roughly 30,000 to 40,0000 we need to make the City of L.A., the LAPD, and those 4 officers face a jury of their peers.

Donations can’t be sent to the law offices of:
Robert C. Moest
2530 Wilshire Blvd, Second Floor
Santa Monica, ca. 90403

Prop (H)8 Watch: Dustin Lance Black brings hearings to life while courtroom reality show collects dust

In  a perfect world we would all get to see just what a bunch of jackasses the prop (h)8 attorneys really are by tuning into the equality court TV network each evening and laugh along as they make such idiotic claims as “gay marriage will destroy western civilization.”

That’s the perfect world.  In the real world it looks like most of us will just have to wait until the end of the month before we can point and laugh.  Of course, if you were lucky enough, you were able to catch a very special reading of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s new play 8 in New York last night.

Ironically, the video tape ruling was handed down on the same day as the reading. Let’s try and make some sense of the latest developments in the ever slowly churning “Days of our prop (h)8”, shall we?

Act 1: Scene one1

“More than a year after now-retired federal District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that California’s Proposition 8 violates the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, Chief Judge James Ware, who assumed jurisdiction over the case, granted a motion by the plaintiffs to unseal the video recording of the trial.”

According to Gay City News, “Ware’s September 19 ruling was based on a common law right of access to judicial proceedings. He rejected every argument made by Proposition 8’s Official Proponents, the only party to the case that opposed unsealing the recordings and making them public. The governor and attorney general of California have declined to defend the voter initiative.”

Of course one might wonder just why in the heck a tax payer funded video tape was sealed up in the first place. (One also might wonder why, in the day and age of digital recording, California is still using video tape but that maybe just me.)

On to Scene 2: a flashback..

“In December 2009, Walker received a request from a coalition of media companies for permission to televise the non-jury trial. At a January 6, 2010, hearing, Walker announced that an audio and video feed of the trial would be streamed live to several courthouses in major cities, and that the trial would be recorded for eventual broadcast on the Internet.

The next day, Walker asked Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski for permission to include this case in a pilot program established by the circuit for broadcast of non-jury trials, which was granted on January 8.  But the Proposition 8 Official Proponents –– who had been granted permission to participate in the trial as “defendant-intervenors,” since neither Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Attorney General Jerry Brown would defend the measure on its merits –– strenuously objected to broadcasting, arguing that this would deter their potential expert witnesses from participating in the case. They took their concerns directly to the US Supreme Court, seeking an emergency order to block the recording. The Supreme Court granted their application on January 13, holding that the Ninth Circuit and the District Court had failed to follow the necessary procedures for establishing the pilot program on broadcasting trials. The high court ordered that the trial not be broadcast.”

Gay City News continues with the unfolding drama:

“Walker, however, concluded that the Supreme Court’s order would not block him from having a recording of the trial made for his own use, and he notified the parties he would do so, to which none objected. Walker later offered to share the recording on a confidential basis with the attorneys on both sides as they prepared their final arguments, but the only ones who took him up on the offer were those for the plaintiffs challenging Proposition 8 and for the City of San Francisco, which had been allowed to intervene as a co-plaintiff. The plaintiffs played brief excerpts from the trial recording during their closing argument.”

Still later…

“After his August 2010 ruling on the case, Walker ordered the clerk to deposit a copy of the recording in the trial record, under seal, so it would be available in the future in case there was need for the court to refer to it. When he retired early in 2011, Walker took with him a copy of the recording he had retained.

When he subsequently played some snippets from it to illustrate lectures he was giving at law schools, the Proponents went ballistic and sought a court order that all outstanding copies of the recording be returned to the court and kept under seal. The Ninth Circuit, where an appeal of Walker’s decision is pending, denied the Proponents’ motion that Walker be required to return his copy, but treated the plaintiffs’ opposition to that motion as a motion to release the recording, and sent it to Ware for determination.”

Objection..objection..objection and so on and so forth, which brings us to yesterday’s ruling that had everyone in the audience for just a brief moment grabbing their remotes to find the equality court network…

Again with the Gay City News:  “Ware provided that his order would go into effect on September 30, allowing the Proponents time to apply to the Ninth Circuit for an emergency stay of his order should they plan an appeal. Since they have to date appealed everything possible, it is likely they will do so. The Ninth Circuit’s emergency panel has, in turn, been very liberal in granting stays in this case, so it would not be surprising if the recording does not become available on September 30 after all.”

The point of today’s chapter in the continuing drama?  Having lost their case on mere logic,  the plaintiffs are now playing a game called “object to everything, seal everything, appeal everything until the other side says “Ok, your right we didn’t want our marriage that bad anyway.”  (Either that or they just don’t the world to point at them and laugh at their ridiculous arguments. I’m betting it’s the latter.)

Fortunately, even if the tape never sees the light of day again, you will still be able to catch the lunacy at a community theater near you…

According to the Hollywood Reporter, “When the release of the tapes were in doubt, AFER teamed up with gay rights advocacy group Broadway Impact to sponsor Black’s play 8 for a one night reading at New York’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The play draws on the verbatim transcripts of the Proposition 8 trial, along with observations from the courtroom and interviews with the same-sex couples on whose behalf the challenge was mounted.”

“Organizers are hopeful that others throughout the country will take the script — like theater groups did with Laramie Project and Vagina Monologues — and use it to stage their own productions. Following the New York debut on September 19th, AFER and Broadway Impact will license “8” to schools and community organizations nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding. AFER and Broadway Impact will coordinate these staged readings across the country, so that “8” will live on beyond its September premiere.”