My Blog

In a Feb. 7 San Francisco Chronicle column, writers Philip Matier and Andrew Ross reported what many in the gay community have suspected all along: that California’s Judge Vaughn Walker is gay.

"The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay."

State Senator Mark Leno, who represents California’s 3rd Senate district, and who is the first openly gay man to serve in the Senate, said that Walker’s sexual orientation is a non-issue.

“I have great respect for Judge Walker, professionally and personally,” he said.

Well, the bigots and homophobes certainly can’t expect a fair trial after that, can they?

Ironically though, Walker is the attorney who took a case against the gay community, and late activist Dr. Tom Waddell, when the U.S. Olympic committee sued to deny the Gay Olympics the right to use the Olympic word; they were forced to change to Gay Games. Walker was a private attorney back then, representing the IOC, which had never challenged other groups from using the word.

It is likely that Walker’s sexuality will be very much a talking point in the media if he finds in favour of gay marriage.

Judge Walker was randomly assigned the Prop. 8 case, and has been reasonable throughout.

Photo: mlinksva / cropped version of CC-BY image from flickr (via Wikipedia)