Michelangelo Signorile writes a great column detailing the problems with Jo Becker’s new book, and I suggest you read it all. I’ve detailed only a bit here:
The most egregious problem with Jo Becker’s new book, Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality, isn’t the omissions, which many critics have focused on in the past week. The omissions problem is pretty egregious, however, so let’s deal with it first, because it’s a criticism that Becker could have easily avoided, and that reveals a lot about how she approached this subject. It offers at least a partial explanation for something that is far more deceptive about Forcing the Spring.
I’ve written a few times about the problems associated with believing that having Ted Olsen and David Boiser the Prop 8 case, not the least of which is the enormous sum of money it cost the LGBTQ community. But the real problem wasn’t the amount it cost, rather the fact that we got absolutely nothing in return for it. Signorile writes:
Many of us certainly believe that the case argued by Ted Olson and David Boies that ultimately overturned California’s Proposition 8 in federal court — a case that was covered daily in the media and dispelled ugly lies about gay people in a court of law — helped change the political culture and American public opinion.
But I think he is only part right. What ultimately led to the fall of Prop 8 was a pure technicality- that those who tried to defend it and appeal to a higher court following lacked standing. Olson and Boies had nothing to do with that. In fact, if anything they led to all that hard work and testimony being shelved. The ruling, nor the testimony heard is never cited and has had no legal impact on any following case.
As we get closer to the end of the battle for Marriage Equality, Bois and Olsen as well as others who have played a role will try and position their evolvement so that history is kind to them. We red some real historical reporting so that credit goes where credit is due. Becker’s book doesn’t provide much n that arena.