Day 8 of the Prop 8 trial, and William Tam brings on the crazy. One of the prominent organizers behind the petition drive to put Prop 8 on the 2008 ballot in California and a leader in the evangelical Christian movement, Tam spent much of his time on the witness stand defending his belief that homosexuality leads to pedophilia, and that same-sex marriage leads to polygamy, and incest. And where, pray tell, did he learn all this?

He told the court he learned about pedophilia “from academic papers….Some could be news and some could be journalists.”

Under intense questioning from David Boies, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs, Tam described how he chose evidence to support his various claims, which he also published in pamphlets that were distributed as part of the petition drive.

Boies: Your paper says that after Netherlands legalized SS marriage, Netherlands legalized incest and polygamy. Do you believe that?
Tam: Same sex marriage may not have led to legalization of incest and polygamy, but it happened.
B: Who told you that?
T: I found it on the Internet. I did not write this that polygamy was legalized in 2005.
B: You put it out there to convince people to vote for Prop. 8. Did you ever look up the law?
T: Yes, there was different documents that shows that’s true.
B: So after Netherlands legalized same sex marriage, legalized polygamy and incest.
T: I’m not sure about incest. That may have been legal before same sex marriage passed.
B: If that’s the case, then it has nothing to do with same sex marriage.
T: Yes, but it shows that if countries are loose with sex it leads to this…

Throughout the day, Boise continued to demonstrate that the leaders of the Prop 8 movement had thorough control over Tam’s efforts to use vague and emotional rhetoric based on falsehoods and fears to essentially dupe voters into supporting Proposition 8. Not very democratic, eh?

Elsewhere…

D.C. – US Congresscritters denounce Uganda’s “Kill Gays” bill. (Box Turtle Bulletin)

Iowa – A transgender woman who “work[ed] with the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor,” and ran a trans support group under the auspices of (Catholic) Drake University was fired by her local bishop last year after using letterhead from her office at Drake’s Newman Center to authorize hormone therapy for a member of the support group. The bishop now says Susan McIntyre was fired for implying she was employed by the Newman center as a social worker or counselor, opening the Church up to potential lawsuits. But why wasn’t she just asked to desist from using official stationary? (The Bilerico Project)

D.C. – Churches going it alone on abstinence-only sex ed programs after the federal government cut all funding for such programs, which typically provide inacurate or misleading information about Sexually Transmitted Infections, pregnancy, and sexuality. (The Advocate)

Maryland – A bill that would ban the recognition of same-sex marriages performed out-of-state may be introduced by state Democratic legislators, even though public support in Maryland for same-sex marriage outweighs opposition by 5%. (The DC Agenda)