Love Wins

Oliver Brown, the lead plaintiff in Brown v. the Board of Education was a parent of a child denied access to a Topeka Kansas School. Clarence Gideon changed the way poor defendant are treated in court. Ernesto Miranda and Jane Roe both, in their own ways, were part of cases that expanded the rights of individual citizens.

The latest name added to that pantheon is that of Jim Obergefell. He was the named plaintiff in the Obergefell vs. Hodges which , just one year ago, enshrined the civil right of same sex marriage in all 50 states. Jim has recently written about his experience in Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality

My conversation with Him Obergefell:

David Boies & Ted Olson and The Legal Case for Marriage Equality

Already 2014 has been a huge year in the freedom to marry movement. Advocates have won 16 out of 16 federal and state court decisions across the country. Polls show support at an all time high of 59%. But, although it may seem that way, this didn’t happen overnight.

For over 30 years many have been in the trenches carrying the fight. People like Evan Wolfson, and Bruce Bawer and Jonathan Rauch and Andrew Sullivan provided much of the early intellectual heft of the movement. And then, when it came time for the legal battles to escalate into the federal courts, one of the most unlikely partnerships in civil-rights history, David Boies and Ted Olson - two of Americas super lawyers, who squared off against each other in Bush v Gore, teamed up to fight California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, — all the way to the Supreme Court.

A year after their victory the have chronicled it, in Redeeming the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality

My conversation with David Boies and Ted Olson:

The Tolerance Trap

Fifty years ago the nation passed the Civil Rights Act. Six years ago we elected an African American as President of the United States. Yet contrary to the hopes of many, we do not live in a post racial society.

While gay rights and gay marriage are often seen as the civil right issues of our time, and yes, remarkable progress has been made, we are also far from a post gay or post gender world.

The reality is, as racial differences have taught us, too much assimilation and tolerance are potential traps that can wipe out identity and water down the very differences that have been fought for.

In short, is the battle for any civil right about viva la difference, or about homogenization? These are some of the questions that Suzanna Walters asks in The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions are Sabotaging Gay Equality.

My conversation with Suzanna Walters:

The changing legal landscape of same-sex marriage

It is, arguably, the civil rights issue of our times. Same sex marriage has also become one of the most politically volatile. It divides red and blue states, most profoundly divides generations and, perhaps more than any other single political issues, attitudes are changing as the recent elections in Maryland, Maine and Washington showed us.

While polarized positions on issues like guns, death penalty, healthcare and immigration harden over time, in the case of gay marriage the public seems to be becoming more accepting. While we still wait to see if the US Supreme court is going to take up California’s Prop 8, it’s clear that it will hear one of many cases on the issue of gay marriage. Because more than anywhere else the battle is being fought in the courts, as well as the political battlefield.

Michael J. Klarman, is a Civil Rights historian and is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Harvard Law School.  He takes us inside the legal battle in From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage

My conversation with Michael Klarman:

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The times they are a changing...and most politicians missed it.

Matt Bai, one of the country's most astute political observers and reporters talks, in his recent N.Y. Time magazine story, about how politicians missed the generational shift on the gay marriage issue.  It's an interesting look at how American values and culture are indeed changing.

My conversation with Matt Bai:

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A gay marriage sea change

Recent polls suggest that for the first time, more than fifty percent of Americans approve of the idea of gay marriage. Opponents of same-sex marriage in the United States claim that it would undermine the institution of marriage, weaken family structures, and cause harm to children. Drawing on 17 years of data and experience with same-sex marriage in Scandinavia (in the form of registered partnerships), William Eskridge, one of our nations most distinguished law professors and scholars on the subject, finds that the evidence refutes conservative defense-of-marriage arguments and,in fact, demonstrates that the institution of marriage may indeed benefit from the legalization of gay marriage. Eskridge's book Gay Marriage: for Better or for Worse?: What We've Learned from the Evidence is the first book to present empirical evidence about the effects of same-sex marriage on society.

My conversation with Bill Eskridge:

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