Same-sex marriage
LAW
Jesse Choper
Professor of law
Phone: (510) 642-0339
E-mail: choperj@law.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Janet Gilmore, (510) 642-5685 or jangilmore@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Choper says that anyone in California who wants to enter into a gay marriage "has everything to gain and nothing to lose by doing so between now and the date that the proposition, if it passes, were to take effect. If it passes and (couples) did not get married, they are out of luck for the future. However, if it passes and they have gotten married, they are going to make a series of legal arguments that are credible and reasonable: They will contend that the proposition should be interpreted so as not to apply retroactively. It does not specifically say that it is retroactive. Most laws are not applied retroactively, and the court should avoid interpreting it that way, because it might be unconstitutional to take away an important liberty interest in a retroactive fashion."
Joan Hollinger
Lecturer in residence, UC Berkeley's School of Law
Phone: (510) 642-1419
E-mail: jhollinger@law.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Janet Gilmore, (510) 642-5685 or jangilmore@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Hollinger coauthored one of the many amicus briefs supporting civil marriage for gay couples in California. She says that as the newlyweds' families, friends and colleagues, as well as millions of other Californians, "come to understand that their marriages do not threaten but strengthen the cultural fabric of our society, it will be increasingly difficult for advocates of the ballot initiative to claim that they, rather than these same-sex couples and our established governmental authorities, are the agents of a stable social order."
Goodwin Liu
Assistant law professor 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
Media Relations contact: Janet Gilmore, (510) 643-5685 or jangilmore@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. He sees California's legalization of same-sex marriage as setting the stage for further progress toward equal citizenship for gays and lesbians.
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.
LANGUAGE
Geoffrey Nunberg
Adjunct professor of linguistics
Office: (510) 643-3894
E-mail: nunberg@berkeley.edu (He is available only by e-mail through June 25.)
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Nunberg is the author of "Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show" (2006). His regular commentary on language for National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" program focused on May 28 on marriage, relationships and language. Nunberg has written extensively on language and other subjects for major newspapers and magazines.
Note: Nunberg is available only by e-mail through June 25.
PREJUDICE
Jack Glaser
Assistant 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
Expertise: Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. "Much of opposition to same-sex marriage stems from homophobia and people give irrational justifications mostly having to do with parenting and 'undermining marriage as an institution' to justify their position," he says.
Note: Glaser is on sabbatical for the fall 2008 semester, but is available for comment. He will be unavailable the week of June 16-20, 2008.
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 coauthored 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. His comments on the subject appear in the June 10 edition of the New York Times.
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 entirely and couples should all have to register as domestic partners in order to receive state benefits that are connected with such partnerships." He says that his own religious restrictions forbid many marriages, "but one would hardly ever conceive of seeking to make those (traditions) enforceable by the civil law."