Theater of the Unheard

For a quick reminder of the importance of Elena Kagan — or any potential Supreme Court nominee — look no further than the high court’s recent decision to block cameras in the federal Proposition 8 trial, in which testimony was heard in January and closing arguments begin in June. Decided down ideological lines, that ruling kept the wrenching testimony of gay plaintiffs like Kristin Perry and Paul Katami from the public. Now the Courage Campaign, a California marriage equality group, is trying to maneuver around that decision by encouraging nationwide reenactments of the trial.

The group announced today in San Francisco that it’s launching “Testimony: Equality on Trial,” a campaign that not only encourages guerrilla-style readings but includes a website with filmed reenactments from movie and TV stars like Marisa Tomei, Josh Lucas, Patricia Clarkson, Cheyenne Jackson, and Michael Urie. The idea is that people will be drawn in by the celebrity videos and use them as examples for their own grassroots stagings, then film them and upload them to the site, YouTube-style.

“Homosexuality has never been on trial like [during the Prop. 8 trial],” says Courage Campaign founder Rick Jacobs. “We determined then that we had to do something to bring that testimony in the court to everyone in the country, and we wanted to figure out a way to do it in a way that was interactive.”

Scripts are available on the website, EqualityOnTrial.org, through PDF transcripts of the trial. Academy Award-winning producer Bruce Cohen (Milk, American Beauty) combed through all the trial transcripts and chose 20 moments ripe for reenactment. Cohen also helped corral some of the stars to get together for the filmings, which took place in New York and Los Angeles.

“The first four videos I knew I wanted to do were the opening statements of our four plaintiffs,” Cohen says. “When you hear each of their individual stories of what it was like for them growing up gay, coming out, being gay in the world, wanting to be married and not being able to, it’s so powerful. They were so eloquent but also so American, so universal.”