Same-sex marriage
LAW
Jesse Choper
Professor of law
Phone: (510) 642-0339
E-mail: choperj@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact: Susan Gluss, 510-642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Expertise: Constitutional law, federalism, church and state, U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Joan Hollinger
Lecturer in residence, UC Berkeley's School of Law
Phone: (510) 642-1419
E-mail: jhollinger@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact: Susan Gluss, 510-642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Expertise: Hollinger co-authored one of the many amicus briefs supporting civil marriage for gay couples in California.
Herma Hill Kay
Professor of law
Phone: (510) 643-2671
E-mail: hkay@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact: Susan Gluss, 510-642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Goodwin Liu
Professor of law and co-director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity at UC Berkeley's School of Law
Phone: (510) 642-7509
E-mail: gliu@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact: Susan Gluss, 510-642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Expertise: Constitutional law, civil rights and the Supreme Court. Liu says that denying gay couples the opportunity to marry unavoidably assigned lower respect and lesser dignity to same-sex relationships.
Liu signed a legal brief in support of the plaintiffs in the case in which the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.
Melissa Murray
Assistant law professor
Phone: (510) 643-6127
E-mail: mmurray@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact: Susan Gluss, 510-642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Expertise: Murray is a scholar of family and criminal law who specializes in marriage law and alternative unions. Murray, along with Herma Hill Kay and Joan Hollinger, signed an amicus brief filed by a group of law professors in support of same-sex marriage.
LANGUAGE
Geoffrey Nunberg
Adjunct professor of linguistics
Office: (510) 643-3894
E-mail: nunberg@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Nunberg is the author of "The Years of Talking Dangerously" (2009) and has written extensively on language and other subjects for major newspapers and magazines. He does a regular feature on language for National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" program.
PREJUDICE
Jack Glaser
Associate professor of public policy
Office: (510) 642-3047
E-mail: jackglaser@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
PSYCHOLOGY
Robert Levenson
Professor of psychology, director of UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research
Phone: (510) 642-5050
E-mail: boblev@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Yasmin Anwar, (510) 643-7944 or yanwar@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Levenson has co-authored numerous studies on marriage and relationships, including studies of same-sex couples. He says his research suggests that the key to partnership success (the ability to resolve conflicts and maintain a stable emotional climate) is the same for both heterosexual and same-sex couples. That said, same-sex couples may be better able to "step back from the emotional brink" when conflicts arise and tempers flare, Levenson says.
RELIGION
Daniel Boyarin
Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture in the departments of Near Eastern Studies and rhetoric, director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies at UC Berkeley
Phone: (510) 642-8356
E-mail: boyarin@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Boyarin is the author of several books, including "Carnal Israel" and "Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man." He co-edited "Queer Theory and the Jewish Question", a collection of essays about the intersections between Jewishness and queerness, and between homophobia and anti-Semitism.
Boyarin says the state should get out of the business of regulating and legitimizing marriage.