A political scientist testifying on behalf of supporters of same-sex marriage said Wednesday that gays and lesbians have little political power and can’t count on most of their friends in high places, including President Obama.

At a federal court trial in San Francisco on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, Stanford University Professor Gary Segura cited ballot measures, state and federal laws, hate crime statistics and opinion polls as evidence that gays and lesbians, like racial minorities, need judicial protection from discrimination.

“Gays and lesbians do not possess a meaningful degree of political power. They are not able to protect their essential interests,” said Segura, who heads the university’s Chicano studies program and co-directs its Center on American Democracy.

Two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco are challenging Prop. 8, a November 2008 initiative that amended the state Constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Read the rest of Bob Egelko’s San Francisco Chronicle article here.