UCLA Faculty Experts Advisory: Can Proposition 8 be Overturned?
UCLA Newsroom
By Office of Media Relations
November 6,  2008

After losing at the polls Nov. 4, same-sex marriage supporters have asked the California Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8, which changes the state's constitution to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. The UCLA School of Law has leading experts on the issue.

Brad Sears, a UCLA lecturer on sexual orientation law, is executive director of the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. The institute is the country's first national think tank dedicated to issues of sexual orientation law and policy and the only research center at a law school dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. [Full bio] Contact: Contact Sears directly at sears@law.ucla.edu or through the Williams Institute at 310-267-4382.

Grace Ganz Blumberg, UCLA professor of law, is an authority on marital property, family law and social welfare. She has written extensively on non-marital cohabitation and has commented frequently in news stories about the legal status of same sex-couples. [Full bio] Media contact: Lauri Gavel | 310-206-2611 | gavel@law.ucla.edu

Gary Gates, senior research fellow at the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy and co-author of "The Gay and Lesbian Atlas," is an authority on the demographic and economic characteristics of same-sex couples in California. Gates co-authored an amicus brief cited in the May 2008 California Supreme Court decision that struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriages. [Full bio] Contact: Contact Gates directly at gates@law.ucla.edu or through the Williams Institute at 310-267-4382.

Media Contacts Office of Media Relations, 310-825-2585 media@support.ucla.edu