Inside the Marriage Wars

If you asked someone in the ’80s if the director of When Harry Met Sally would fight the actor who played the Terminator over legalizing marriage for same-sex couples, they would probably have said … probably not! And yet, in 2012, I found myself heading to Rob Reiner’s house to lend a hand with a lawsuit that would, in no small part, determine the future of same-sex marriage.

Thanks to everyone who provided voices for this video:

Sam Pirie as the voice of King James
– Watch Sam’s videos: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSamp

Dr. Lee Arnott as the voice of W.R. Greg
– Watch Lee’s Molly House video: https://youtu.be/DpkcwBK15bc
– Check out his podcast with Dave Moor: https://www.youtube.com/@PodcastGaze
– And also here: https://podcasts.apple.com/sk/podcast/the-problematic-gaze/id1750288007

Dave White and Alonso Duralde as the letter to ONE Magazine
– Listen to their podcast Linoleum Knife: https://linoleumknife.libsyn.com/

Sonari Glinton as the voice of court rulings
– Find his work: https://www.sonariglinton.com/

Huge thanks to Emma for editing this video! Check out her channel, Media Processing: https://www.youtube.com/@mediaprocessingchannel

Check out Del & Phyl’s full interview on the Making Gay History podcast: https://makinggayhistory.org/podcast/phyllis-lyon-del-martin/

Join me on Patreon for hours of bonus videos: https://www.patreon.com/c/mattbaume
And give a Patreon gift membership: https://www.patreon.com/mattbaume/gift

Read my book Defining Marriage, full of personal stories from the fight for marriage: http://definingmarriage.com/

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:03:02 – Getting creative in the distant past
00:13:38 – Brave early organizers
00:30:29 – Surprising 70s television
00:34:55 – Fighting back in the 80s
00:42:52 – Risky moves in the 90s
00:49:03 – Sitcoms versus same-sex marriage
01:07:22 – Salvaging the California campaign
01:24:11 – Outlaw weddings in San Francisco
01:44:11 – Standing up to Schwarzenegger & the Republicans
01:57:08 – Proposition 8
02:38:27 – Stonewall 2.0
02:48:15 – AFER emerges & activist infighting
03:15:23 – Our day in court
03:35:40 – Going to Broadway
04:12:56 – An impossible election challenge in 2012
04:28:24 – Supreme Court showdown
04:41:40 – The day of decision
04:47:13 – More couples step up
05:01:47 – What happens now?

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