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The California Report Magazine

A Queer Journalist Reflects on the Legacy of the Proposition 8 Trial Tapes

Bianca TaylorCarlos Cabrera-Lomelí
When KQED won a lawsuit to unseal the Proposition 8 courtroom tapes, it opened up the landmark trial to public record and reckoning.
Two men standing to the left face two women standing to the right in a building.
From left to right: KQED reporter Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, Politics Editor Scott Shafer, Sandy Stier and Kris Perry. Stier and Perry were two of four plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit that overturned California’s ban on same-sex marriage. The couple visited the KQED offices in San Francisco on March 3, 2023.  (Kori Suzuki/KQED)

When California voters passed Proposition 8 in 2008, they dealt a blow to the LGBTQ community.

Winning just over half the vote, Proposition 8 stripped the right to marry from same-sex couples — a right that had been granted by the California Supreme Court less than six months earlier.

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But in 2010, two same-sex marriage couples sued the state of California and overturned the ban, paving the way for marriage equality that exists in California today.

That landmark trial was videotaped, but the recordings were never released to the public. But a few years ago, KQED sued for access to the tapes and won. The unsealing of those tapes put every word during that trial on the public record for history to hear.

Watch a video featuring Kris Perry and Sandy Stier reflecting on their experiences, produced by KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, Scott Shafer and Vivian Morales.

KQED’s community engagement reporter, Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli, spent more than 40 hours going through that archival video and interviewed the four original plaintiffs about their experience. They reflected on what it was like defending their relationships and identities on a national stage and how the anti-gay rhetoric used in the Proposition 8 campaign still echoes today.

Watch a video featuring Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo reflecting on their experiences, produced by KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, Scott Shafer and Vivian Morales.

As a queer journalist covering California’s gay marriage journey, Carlos learned a lot about himself in the process. He shared some of those feelings in this personal audio essay for The California Report Magazine.

Editor’s Note: Carlos’ reflections draw on memories of some incidents that involve upsetting homophobic slurs in English and Spanish. Please take care when listening.

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