Three months before he and his wife were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home, director Rob Reiner made a dark prediction on CNN: “This may be the last time you ever see me.”

Reiner’s comment expressed worry about possible retaliation for going on the news network to oppose the Trump administration’s attempts to censor late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

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While no connection has been found between Reiner’s opposition to Trump and the suspected homicide — in fact, Reiner’s son has been arrested in connection with the slaying — his comment on CNN highlight’s the director’s long-held commitment to fairness and justice.

Reiner was best known for directing 23 films, including such favorites as the 1984 mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, the 1987 fantasy drama The Princess Bride, the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel Misery, and the 1992 military drama A Few Good Men.

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However, Reiner was also a champion for LGBTQ+ rights. In 2008, he co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which successfully funded legal challenges to California’s Proposition 8, a voter-approved ballot measure that banned same-sex marriages in the state.

Reiner was a 63-year-old actor-turned-director at the time, but the venture saw him working as a political activist. He worked with longtime gay political organizer Chad Griffin to co-found the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), The Hollywood Reporter noted.

Griffin helped rally the gay activist community while Reiner courted wealthy Hollywood creators, including inclusive TV creator Norman Lear, film producer Steve Bing, and gay media mogul David Geffen. Geffen’s seed-money donation of $3 to $5 million enabled the foundation to fund Ted Olson and David Boies, two lawyers who helped overturn Proposition 8 (though the lawyers also did extensive pro bono work for the cause).

Challenging Prop 8 in federal court worried some activists who preferred to challenge state bans on same-sex marriage in state courts (over fear that a Supreme Court decision against marriage equality would be devastating to the movement). In fact, nine gay groups — including Freedom to Marry, Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — all opposed the idea.

In May 2009, AFER announced its formation on the same day it announced its lawsuit against Prop 8, Hollingsworth v. Perry, which said the law violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. It was heard by out gay Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.

The case against Prop 8 (& Reiner’s role)

Olson and Boies argued that marriage has historically been used to demean marginalized groups, that anti-gay forces in society have repeatedly dehumanized LGBTQ+ people, that same-sex marriage bans harm both queer people and broader society, and that same-sex marriage aids the well-being of queer people and their children.

On August 4, 2010, Walker issued his ruling overturning Prop 8. In his decision, Walker noted that marriage is a civil (rather than a religious) arrangement and that denying it to gay and lesbian people furthers no compelling state interest.

He wrote that extending marriage to marginalized groups has strengthened the institution and created a more inclusive society overall. He also noted that the two witnesses who testified in support of Prop 8 “either couldn’t or wouldn’t respond” to questions under cross-examination.

Numerous queer celebrities celebrated the ruling, including Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, and Adam Lambert.

In September 2011, Reiner noted, “We don’t believe in separate but equal in any other legal position except [for asking same-sex couples to accept domestic partnerships or other equivalent social unions.] We feel that this is the last piece of the civil rights puzzle being put into place.”

Out screenwriter Dustin Lance Black wrote a theatrical reenactment of the trial taken from court transcripts and journalistic records, entitled 8. With AFER’s backing, it opened on Broadway in the fall of 2011, Queerty noted.

The following spring, Reiner directed a one-night-only production of the play in Los Angeles and shared it on YouTube. The cast for this production included big-name Hollywood actors and allies including George Clooney, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brad Pitt, and queer actors Martin Sheen, Matt Bomer, Chris Colfer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jane Lynch, George Takei, as well as others.

Meanwhile, Prop 8’s proponents appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which upheld Walker’s decision in a 2-1 ruling on February 7, 2012. “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” the court wrote in its decision.

Reiner celebrated the appeals court victory alongside fellow activist, gay Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and then-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Around the time, Reiner said, “I am unbelievably proud to be part of this. I couldn’t have imagined that I would ever be involved in anything as historically significant as this in my life.”

Prop 8’s anti-gay defenders appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled on June 26, 2013, in a 5–4 decision, that the defenders lacked the legal standing to challenge the court’s overturning of the law.

At a 2019 dinner for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Reiner said, “We have to move past singling out transgender, LGBTQ, black, white, Jewish, Muslim, Latino. We have to get way past that and start accepting the idea that we’re all human beings. We’re all human beings, we all share the same planet, and we should all have the same rights, period. It’s no more complicated than that.”

In a statement following Reiner’s death, HRC President Kelley Robinson said, “For all his accomplishments in Hollywood, Rob and Michele will most be remembered for their gigantic hearts, and their fierce support for the causes they believed in–including LGBTQ+ equality. So many in our movement remember how Rob and Michele organized their peers, brought strategists and lawyers together, and helped power landmark Supreme Court decisions that made marriage equality the law of the land – and they remained committed to the cause until their final days.”

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