LIVE FROM LOS ANGELES: Prop 8 Play

Beginning at 9:45 pm, Texas time (is there any other kind?) via YouTube or AFER.

Featuring an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon and others, "8" is a play written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and directed by acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner. It is a powerful account of the case filed by the American Federation for Equal Rights (AFER ) in the U.S. District Court in 2010 to overturn Proposition 8 [LINK], a constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. Framed around the trial's historic closing arguments in June 2010, 8 provides an intimate look what unfolded when the issue of same-sex marriage was on trial.

11:15 Texas time: The play's over, but it will be posted soon on YouTube and I'll repost it here on the Blue Truck when it is available.

I must admit, I'd heard this play was in the works months ago, but I couldn't imagine how anyone could make a lengthy court proceeding into a play without a lot of boredom; yet the writer, Dustin Lance Black, did just that, and the all-star cast was great.

I have to tell you, boys, when all those big stars walked out on stage at the beginning, your Head Trucker lost it for a moment or two:  in some sense I felt they were coming out for me, and for my Cody, and the little dog, and that life we had together for a flicker of time, in that tiny little town far out on the prairie - that this play was ultimately about us, and the millions of others like us, who wanted, and want, nothing more than to live a quiet, happy life just as the relatives and the neighbors do, a life protected and respected by the laws, a life of equal dignity and honor under the Constitution and the noblest principles of this Republic.

A life free from fear and free from interference: the equal protection of the laws, the pursuit of happiness. A life of Yes, not of No - of sunshine, not of shadow - of I Do, not of You Can't.

Just like everyone else. And bless God, that day is finally dawning for us all in this land - may it come quickly.

Update:  Here's the complete play, which runs an hour and a half; when the red button appears on the screen, click it to get started at the right place.



And one of the most memorable lines tonight was not in the script: after the play was over, attorneys for our side Ted Olson and David Boies were called onstage, where Boies remarked: "We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice lost."