Attorneys David Boise And Theodore B. Olsen Filed Brief With Appeals Court; Argue That “Unmistakeable Purpose And Effect” Of Proposition 8 Was To “Isolate Gay Men And Women” As “Unusual” And “Dangerous;” Characterizations They Argue That Contributed To Tyler Clementi Suicide

Late Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports, the attorneys representing the plaintiffs who successfully challenged the constitutional validity of California’s gay marriage ban – Proposition 8 – filed a brief with the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, restating arguments made during the historic Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial, the lead lawyers, Theodore B. Olsen and David Boise writing that “Fourteen times the Supreme Court has stated that marriage is a fundamental right of all individuals. This case tests the proposition whether the gay and lesbian Americans among us should be counted as ‘persons’ under the 14th Amendment, or whether they constitute a permanent underclass ineligible for protection under that cornerstone of our Constitution.” They also wrote that the “unmistakable purpose and effect” of Proposition 8 was in effect “to isolate gay men and lesbians and their relationships as separate, unusual, dangerous, and unworthy of the martial relationship,” and that the “drawing a line around” the gay segment of the population contributed to the suicide of Tyler Clementi and the beating and torture of two 17 year old teens in the Bronx, the brief concluding that “Incidents such as these are all too familiar to our society. And it is too plain for the argument that discrimination written into our constitutional charters inexorably leads to shame, humiliation, ostracism, fear, and hostility. The consequences are all too often very, very tragic.”