For a good primer on where things stand, surf over to the Courage Campaign’s “All you need to know about today’s Prop 8 hearing at the 9th Circuit.”

The American Foundation for Equal Rights will be live tweeting at @AFER.

This morning, the CA Supreme Court ruled that the proponents of Prop 8 do have standing under state law to appeal the decision in Perry v. Brown.

Daniel Avila, a lawyer for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, has resigned over a column he wrote ascribing same-sex attraction to Satan. Church Lady jokes aside, Avila’s resignation reveals a great deal about the USCCB’s efforts to get religious exemptions to various federal regulations on health care and providing social services with federal money.

Avila’s apology seems more aimed at his former employers at the USCCB than to LGBTs, which says a great deal about the political priorities and goals of the USCCB.

Despite the order earlier this month by Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware to release the videos from the Proposition 8 trial in former Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s courtroom in San Francisco, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a stay of this order, keeping the videos under wraps while the higher court decides the proponents’ appeal of the videos’ release.

In other words, this sideshow over releasing the videos, based on the fear of the bigots’ attorneys and witnesses that their arguments will be exposed to the light of day, making them look like the foolish bigots they are, continues.

Minnesota’s Archbishop has directed priests to organize efforts to create a ballot initiative that would make same-sex marriage unconstitutional in that state. The pattern looks similar to efforts in California to pass Proposition 8.

Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s play 8 covering the Proposition 8 hearings starring Morgan Freeman, Anthony Edwards, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei hits Broadway on September 19 in a one-time staged reading at the Eugene O’Neil Theater to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Tickets start at $500.

Much is being made about the prominent voices who will testify at Senator Leahy’s DOMA hearing next Wednesday, but I wanted to highlight the story of one person directly affected by DOMA who will tell his story to Senators next week. Legally married in California, testimony will be heard from Ron Wallen, an Indio, Calif. resident, who married Tom Carrollo in 2008 after being together for 55 years.

Well the Obama Administration slid some pretty big news into the holiday weekend trash dump, and for once it is very good news. In a late filing in the Northern District of California (NDCA) case of Golinski v. US Department of Personnel Management, the Department of Justice has formally stated that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional

Between last night’s marvelous happening in New York, the clear cut and admirable new policy by the Obama Administration, and the ever enlightened movement of society, I think the writing is on the wall for the California Supreme Court, and I think they will indeed find that the D-Is have the requisite standing, the 9th will roll with that and away we go to the United States Supreme Court. I truly believe the New York passage will leave such a marker that will carry all this through, and that is a beautiful thing.

Must be nice to have an almost unlimited number of bigoted rubes willing to open their wallets whenever h8 comes calling. Case in point: Charles Cooper, losing lead attorney guiding the ProtectMarriage consiglieres to defeat at every single stage of the Prop 8 trial, announced Oh, Hell Yes, They Will Appeal Chief Judge James Ware’s eloquent, swift beatdown of their horrific motion to order Judge Vaughn Walker to recuse himself because, you know what — he’s Ghey!