It’s a sad world when America has to pay attention to the ridiculous words of Hak-Shing William Tam — let alone have his byzantine claims be entered into the Perry trial. But Tam, an original defendant-intervenor in the case who’s trying to get out of it because his private life is being made public, will indeed be part of the public record, as Team Olson/Boies call him to the stand as a hostile witness. And given the things Tam has said in the past, like how “Every child, when growing up, would fantasize marrying someone of the same sex” if Prop 8 passed, it should prove for some most excellent testimony. And live tweeting.
After hearing from academics and historians and political scientists (like Stanford’s Gary Segura, who yesterday hilariously told the court the Human Rights Campaign has no real political power), it will be Tam that we’re expecting to be among the plaintiff’s most enthralling witnesses. That is, of course, unless ProtectMarriage.com’s Charles Cooper & Co. counsel their client to give one-word answers and generally STFU, because he’s already an embarrassment for the defense.
romeo
This guy really is a majorly ignorant dufus. But he’s the Prop 8 people’s baby. Why are they so ashamed of him? LOL
B
No. 1 · romeo : “This guy really is a majorly ignorant dufus. But he’s the Prop 8 people’s baby. Why are they so ashamed of him? LOL”
For the serious answer, see Das Ring des Nibelungen, the set of four Wagnerian operas. A part of what it shows is how making dubious deals for short-term expediency can cause you long term problems at the end. With Tam, the Prop 8 people are about to find that out. His over-the-top rhetoric and bigotry might have helped them in the campaign, but the chickens are now coming home to roost and they are desperately looking for a fox to eat this one up before it is too late.
At least we’ll get to see him squirm. It would be ironic if he turns out to be what turns the decision in our favor. He’s likely to be a “smoking gun” regarding proof that Proposition Eight was motivated by bias – regardless of what went on in the campaign, only a few individuals filed the initiative, and Tam is one of them. So is Gail Knight (estranged from her gay son, according to http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=3233 so there may be proof of bias there as well, especially given her deceased husband’s opinions).
For Dennis Hollingsworth, one of the other filers, there’s http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=3750 (not sure what Hollingsworth has done in general, but quotes someone who brought some gay teens to watch the state senate debate an LGBT bill as saying, “These kids were asking me, ‘Is he actually a senator?’ They could not believe that he had been elected to a legislative position. The statements he made on the floor were so ignorant that it was embarrassing.”) Hollingwood is apparently part of the religious right-wing fringe. Regardless, a state senator has a public record.
Mark Jansson and Martin Gutierrez are the remaining two – couldn’t find any details about their motivation.
B
Actually, Tam finally summed it up very nicely (see the prop8trialtracker site with ‘B’ for Boies and ‘T’ for Tam):
B: Whom did you talk to during the break?
T: My lawyer.
B: What did you say to your lawyer?
T: That I felt like a naughty boy being put in front of the classroom being mocked.
B: What did he say?
T: He laughed.