8 is Great

The fight to achieve marriage equality for gays and lesbians is going on in many different venues. One of the more well known struggles is the legal battle to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ban on gay marriage passed in California. Proposition 8 gained notoriety mainly for two reasons: it was passed in the most populated state in the United States; and it's the only time where a state that was already permitting same-sex marriages turned around and banned them.

There are many ways that a person interested in learning more about Proposition 8 can do so. I've mentioned one here on the blog, the documentary film 8: The Mormon Proposition (though I noted in my review that it was less about making the case for justice than it was about exposing the involvement of the Mormon church in passing the ban).

When Proposition 8 was challenged at the lowest level in court, the judge on the case, Vaughn Walker, intended to create another means that people could see all the facts about the law -- he wanted to make all video of the trial available on YouTube. But the defenders of the anti-equality proposition filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court, who ruled (5 to 4) that footage of the trial would not be made publicly available.

Transcripts of a trial, however, are readily available from any court, to any person who wants to wants to read them. And the group funding the lawsuit against Prop 8, the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), has made those transcripts available on their web site.

Dustin Lance Black, Oscar-winning screenwriter of the film Milk, decided to do something with those transcripts to push the case to a wider audience. He wrote a 90-minute play, "8: The Play", which takes the most compelling sections of that testimony and presents them on stage.

One early staged reading of the play, directed by Rob Reiner, was presented in L.A. in March of this year by a star-studded cast. Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, George Clooney, Kevin Bacon, Christine Lahti, Jamie Lee Curtis, Matt Bomer, Matthew Morrison, Yeardley Smith, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Chris Colfer, John C. Reilly, George Takei, Jane Lynch, and more assembled for a single performance of the play. And that performance was made available in the way the trial itself was originally intended: the entire performance can be viewed on YouTube.

The performance is deeply moving and truly powerful. Brad Pitt is wonderfully sharp as Judge Walker. John C. Reilly is brilliantly funny as the chief witness of those defending the law. Christine Lahti and Jamie Lee Curtis are amazing and sympathetic as one of the two couples bringing the lawsuit. Jane Lynch gets the audience in stitches as the president of a major organization opposing marriage equality. Chris Colfer serves up one of the most heart-breaking scenes of the piece as a witness questioned about "reversal therapy."

But Martin Sheen shines above them all. He plays one of the two main lawyers prosecuting the case to strike down the law. The play culminates in a three-minute monologue taken from the closing arguments of the trial, and he delivers it with such passion and compassion, such fire and justice, the audience springs to its feet afterward with a deafening standing ovation that seemingly runs as long as the speech itself.

Not only can you watch the play on YouTube (which I highly recommend), you can also purchase an audio recording, either in CD or MP3 format. And proceeds from the recording fund AFER and its efforts in support of marriage equality.

AFER is also making the play available for limited staged readings all over the country. They offer it free of charge, asking only that a portion of any profits be donated to AFER. And performances are happening all over the country. You can go to the play's official website and search to see if one is happening near you. While you may not get an actor of Martin Sheen's skill at your local production, it's likely that the words themselves will ring true regardless.

I would encourage you all to experience 8: The Play in at least one of these ways.