June 23 will see the premiere of The Case Against 8, HBO's riveting documentary about the lawsuit which resulted in the tossing of Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same sex marriage. The suit brought marriage equality back to the Golden State.
Filmmakers Ben Cotner and Ryan White weave a tale so intense it becomes a nail-biting suspense thriller, even though most viewers already know the outcome.
After Prop. 8 passed in 2008, attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies agreed to challenge the ban's constitutionality in a federal court. They conducted a painstaking search for the "right" plaintiffs.
They found their story in Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, a lesbian couple in Berkeley who were raising four sons together, along with Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, a gay couple in L.A. who said that they wanted to have children after they could legally wed. They were gay, yet they embodied the core "family values" that much of America embraced.
When the couples are on camera, The Case Against 8 becomes a romantic drama. As the camera follow them around, we see how absolute their love and commitment to each other is. How could anyone invalidate that love by denying them the right to marry?
Olson and Boies were perhaps the most unlikely allies in the history of the LGBT equality movement. Both straight, Boies is a liberal, while Olson is a conservative. They became close friends in 2000 when they were opposing counsel in the 2000 Florida recount debacle that resulted in the George W. Bush presidency. Olson had won that argument for Bush before the US Supreme Court. No one doubted his ability to convince the court again, but could he be trusted?
The cameras records the plaintiffs and their attorneys throughout the arduous process which resulted in the historic Supreme Court ruling. There are many strange twists and turns along the way.
It's revealed at one point that LGBT advocacy groups opposed the lawsuit and tried to stop it. "We spent more time fighting gay advocacy groups than we did fighting our opponents," an assisting attorney notes wryly.
There's also the remarkable turnaround of David Blankenhorn, who founded the conservative think-tank The Institute For American Values. Once a key witness for the anti-equality crowd, he explains to the filmmakers why he now supports marriage equality.
There are even a few laughs. The anti-equality side presents arguments that are so lame, how could you not snicker?
It all leads up to that thrilling day which opened the marriage equality floodgates across the USA.
The Case Against 8 airs on HBO June 23 at 9 p.m. It will also be available at HBO On Demand.
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