Chief justice's lesbian cousin will attend Prop. 8 hearing

[ashling]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-prop.8-chief-justices-cousin-a-lesbian-will-attend-prop-8-hearing-20130324,0,834185.story

Jean Podrasky, 48, a lesbian who wants to marry her partner, will be at Tuesday’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8 in seating reserved for family members and guests of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

***

Podrasky lives in San Francisco and usually sees Roberts only on family occasions. His mother is her godmother, whom she adores. She said Roberts knows she is gay and introduced her along with other relatives during his Senate confirmation hearing. She hopes he will meet her partner of four years, Grace Fasano, during their Washington visit. The couple flew to Washington on Sunday.

“He is a smart man,” she said. “He is a good man. I believe he sees where the tide is going. I do trust him. I absolutely trust that he will go in a good direction.”

Podrasky obtained the highly coveted courtroom seats by emailing Roberts’ sister, Peggy Roberts, and then going through his secretary. Roberts knows she is attending, she said. She, her partner, her sister and her niece will attend Tuesday’s arguments on Proposition 8. On Wednesday, her father will take her niece’s place for the hearing on the challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act.

[sadbear]

1. It truly is a shame that the only hope for a republican to act like a human

is when he has a relative who could be affected by what he/she does. (Of course, I still have doubt about Roberts.)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. yup. there was a good article i read recently

that talked about this.

[boston bean]

4. It's sort of like the when people say

imagine if it was your mother or daughter that was raped, to get some men to understand.

How about just doing the right damned thing!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. ahh here is the article

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/03/15/rob_portman_and_the_politics_of_narcissism.html

mostly it talks about how you can be related to gays or women, but the senator will not have a child who is poor, and hence poverty programs suffer most from this lack of empathy

[UnrepentantLiberal]

3. I didn't know you could attend Supreme Court oral arguments

[Marrah_G]

6. To me this seems like a good sign

If he wasn't prepared to overturn prop8 and doma, why would he invite her there and really upset his whole family? That doesn't seem logical to me, so I think maybe we will see him do the right thing on this one.