President Obama has announced publicly that he supports same-sex marriage. UCLA experts are available to speak about the president's new position on the issue and how it may effect his reelection chances in November.

 

Brad Sears, a lecturer at the UCLA School of Law, is executive director of the school'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.

Contact:

Contact Sears directly at sears@law.ucla.edu or through the Williams Institute at 310-267-4382.

 

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.

Contact:

Contact Gates directly at gates@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.

Media contact:

Lauri Gavel | 310-206-2611 | gavel@law.ucla.edu

 

 

Lynn Vavreck, associate professor of political science, studies political campaigns, with an emphasis on how the state of the economy and candidate behavior affect voters. She is conducting ongoing survey research and will be blogging regularly from the campaign trail until Election Day.

[Video: Vavreck talks about the 2012 campaign.]

Media contacts:

Meg Sullivan | 310-825-1046 | msullivan@support.ucla.edu

  

Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., dean of the UCLA School of Public Affairs and a professor of political science and public policy, studies racial and ethnic politics, the mass media, and electoral behavior.

Stanley Paul | 310-206-0159 | paul@publicaffairs.ucla.edu 

Ricardo Vazquez | 310-206-3986 | rvazquez@support.ucla.edu

 

Tim Groeling, associate professor and chair of communication studies, is an expert on political communications and new media. He is the author of the 2010 book "When Politicians Attack: Party Discipline and the Media," which addresses the 2012 campaign and President Obama's prospects for reelection.

[Video: Groeling talks about the politics of a divided Congress.]

Media contacts:

Meg Sullivan | 310-825-1046 | msullivan@support.ucla.edu