On Saturday night the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) hosted and live-streamed a reading of the play, “8”. Featured in the reading were George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Jane Lynch, Matt Bomer, Matthew Morrison, Christine Lahti, Jamie Lee Curtis, Martin Sheen, and many more who have joined us in the fight for marriage equality. The play is based upon the court transcripts from the Prop 8 trial, Perry v. Schwarzenegger that resulted in Judge Vaughn Walker ruling that Prop 8 was unconstitutional (then came the 9th Circuit court decision upholding the ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional and the current holding pattern. For a summary, click here.)

I started watching the play last night and it is really amazing and simultaneously horrifying. Amazing to watch a real-life court room drama that is so poignant and brilliantly acted. The horrifying part is that the dialogue is taken directly from the court transcripts which means that there were actual witnesses saying deplorable things in a courtroom! People actually think and seem to believe they can prove (though they actually couldn’t) some bigoted things.

You can watch the reading below or by clicking here. 

This weekend I was also reminded when talking about issues of marriage the battle is about marriage equality and not gay marriage. A good reminder to all that we need to be mindful of our words because they really do speak to what the issues are and are not in these politicized times.