Tag Archives: marriage equality Texas

Marriage EQUALIZED: SCOTUS Strikes Down State Marriage Bans

BREAKING:  In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has invalidated ALL state bans against same-sex marriage. Justice Anthony Kennedy joined Justices Elena Kagen, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to form the majority, with Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia in the dissent.

The ruling’s foundation came from the Fourteenth Amendment of the constitution.  Directly from the majority opinion

The right of same-sex couples to marry is also derived from the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. The Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause are connected in a profound way. Rights implicit in liberty and rights secured by equal protection may rest on different precepts and are not always coextensive, yet each may be instructive as to the meaning and reach of the other. This dynamic is reflected in Loving, where the Court invoked both the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause; and in Zablocki v. Redhail, 434 U. S. 374, where the Court invalidated a law barring fathers delinquent on child-support payments from marrying. Indeed, recognizing that new insights and societal understandings can reveal unjustified inequality within fundamental institutions that once passed unnoticed and unchallenged, this Court has invoked equal protection principles to invalidate laws imposing sexbased inequality on marriage,…

No doubt about it… this is an historic day for the United States of America.  With same-sex marriage now legal in all 50 states, we must wait and see how this ruling comes into reality.  In the case of Texas, at least 3 county clerks are ready to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, though sadly Harris County is not one of them. Texas Leftist will have more as the process of marriage unfolds across the state, and the nation.

SCOTUS

 

Texas Judge Declines To Lift Stay Preventing Marriage Equality

After several days of hopeful anticipation, it appears that LGBT couples hoping to marry in Texas will once again have their dreams deferred.  Here’s the story by Guillermo Contreras of the San Antonio Express-News (via the Houston Chronicle website)…

A San Antonio-based federal judge declined on Friday to allow gay marriages to take place in Texas while the state awaits a ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In February, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garciaruled Texas’ same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, but — knowing his ruling would be appealed — imposed a hold that prevented gays from immediately getting married. The state did appeal, and the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 9.

In early October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review same-sex marriage cases from five other states, effectively legalizing gay marriage in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin. Since then, federal courts in five additional states have overturned their bans, bringing the total number of states with legalized same-sex marriage to 35. It also is legal in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis.

Noting the legal landscape has changed, the two couples who challenged Texas’ ban, Nicole Dimetman andCleopatra De Leon and Mark Phariss and Victor Holmes, requested last month that Garcia lift the stay.

In his latest order, Garcia said he was not persuaded that the actions by the Supreme Court supported lifting his stay. He also denied the state’s claim that he had no jurisdiction in the case anymore.

However, his order shows he appeared on the brink of lifting the stay.

Garcia seemed to anticipate that the 5th Circuit would put the stay back in place in the Texas case if he lifted it. If lifted, he wrote, it would create a rush to courthouses of same-sex couples seeking to get married, only to see themselves in legal limbo should the stay be reimposed by the appeals court.

“Lifting the stay would not bring finality to this Fourteenth Amendment claim,” Garcia wrote. “To the contrary, such action would only be temporary, with confusion and doubt to follow. The day for finality and legal certainty in the long and difficult journey for equality is closer than ever before.”

So in Garcia’s opinion, he wants to avoid the ‘legal limbo’ that would be caused by allowing a brief window for marriage equality in Texas, preferring that couples simply continue to wait until the issue is settled by the Supreme Court.

But many of the couples see things differently, as legal limbo was exactly what they were seeking to create for the state.  As laws stand, Texas is currently able to deny LGBT couples because they do not have official state documentation of their marriages, even in the case that they are legally married from another state.  Like Katy resident Connie Wilson, who was initially denied access to a Texas Driver License because the state didn’t recognize her California marriage certificate, the Texas government is currently using the fact that couples cannot legally marry in the state as an excuse to discriminate.

However, this sanctioned discrimination becomes much tougher to accomplish when the documentation is from Texas itself.  That is why even the small window of time that would allow a few couples to marry could prove critically important once cases do reach the Supreme Court.  Lifting the stay would be far from a final solution, but it could serve to strengthen the overall case for marriage equality in Texas.  But that is not the direction Judge Garcia has chosen.

 

New Campaign For Marriage Equality Targets Texas

Over the last couple of years, marriage equality has spread across the United States like wildfire.  At present, it is the law of the land in 33 states and the District of Columbia.  A clear majority of United States citizens now live in states where same-sex couples can legally marry.

But not Texas.  Not yet.

With a sweeping record of victories under their belt, one national equality organization has now set its sights on Texas to try and advance the cause.  Here’s more about the Texas for Marriage campaign from Lone Star Q

The national group Freedom to Marry plans to spend $200,000 on the campaign launched Tuesday, in advance of oral arguments before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January in a federal lawsuit challenging Texas’ same-sex marriage bans.

The campaign will be led by Ward Curtin, three-time deputy campaign manager to Houston Mayor Annise Parker, and Mark McKinnon, a former advisor to President George W. Bush.

“Nearly every state and federal court from last year on, more than 50 – with judges appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents and governors – has ruled in favor of the freedom to marry and moving the country forward,” Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson said. “Texas families should not be left behind. Government has no business interfering in important freedoms like who Texans marry, and no business putting obstacles in the path of families and employers trying to do the right thing. Our new campaign will show that Texans are ready for the freedom to marry, and so is America.”

In addition to a website unveiled Tuesday, TxForMarriage.org, the campaign will feature statewide TV ads, townhall meetings and a Republican-led effort by young conservatives.

“Gay marriage was barely a blip on the radar this past election cycle in Texas, as it was in the rest of the country,” McKinnon said. “That’s because discrimination doesn’t sell like it used to — and because Texans from all walks of life, from big cities to small towns, believe strongly in freedom and family. Supporting gay couples marrying is squarely in line with these Texas values.”

The group’s coordinated approach combines the personal stories of LGBT Texans with a strong case for why marriage equality makes sense for state business leaders.  All valid reasons that will hopefully strengthen the state’s growing coalition in support of equal marriage rights.

This is a strong start, but as Texas for Marriage moves forward, let’s hope that they do not leave out other important voices in this argument… the religious community itself.  Perhaps it is likely that the group wants to maintain a direct posture that steers clear of religion in all of its forms.  A large part of existing arguments for marriage equality stem from the view that it is strictly a secular institution from the government’s standpoint, and therefore leaves religious entities to make their own decisions about how to view same-sex marriage.

But it’s still important to recognize that many religious entities do support marriage equality, and as such, those voices continue to be noticeably absent from the conversation in Texas.   Dynamic congregations across the state are now supporting equality, some at similar rates to society at large.  Even if the push for marriage is mostly about government recognition, the religious community can still be of great use to change hearts, minds and overall public opinion.

At any rate, let’s hope the new push merits some results.

Greg Abbott: LGBT Texans Aren’t Stable Enough For Marriage

Marriage in most families is a momentous occasion, and for those that choose to walk down the aisle, it marks the beginning of a new life for the wedded couple.  Marriages form a backbone of not only family history, but American history as well.  But for LGBT Texans that treasured history is being not only prevented, but destroyed by the state’s Big Government Attorney General.  As revealed this week, Greg Abbott has decided to be a roadblock to equality yet again, filing an appeal to the recent ruling that struck down the state’s marriage ban.  Here’s the information directly from the full text of the Attorney General’s filing

Texas’s marriage laws are rooted in a basic reality of human life: procreation requires a male and a female.  Two people of the same sex cannot, by themselves procreate.  All the Equal Protection Clause requires is that Texas’s marriage be rationally related to a legitimate state interest.  Texas’s marriage laws easily satisfy that standard.  The state’s recognition and encouragement of opposite sex marriages increases the likelihood that naturally procreative couples will produce children, and that they will do so in the context of stable, long-lasting relationships.  By encouraging the formation of opposite sex marriages, the State seeks not only to encourage procreation but also to minimize the societal costs of procreation outside of stable, lasting marriages.

Curious how the Attorney General, and Republican candidate for Governor keeps bringing up this point about stability.  Clearly Abbott doesn’t think that LGBT Texans are “stable enough” to handle meaningful relationships.  Of course, as the Houston Chronicle points out, these are the very same flawed arguments that have been rejected several times in other Appeals courts…

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and pro-gay marriage activists were surprised Abbott led with the “responsible procreation” argument since it has been rejected in the 10th and 4th Circuit Courts.

“It hasn’t succeeded very often because it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and it doesn’t really comport with what most of us think about marriage,” said Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. “(State law) doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be reasonable.”

Any outcome in the 5th Circuit would be a win for the gay marriage movement, said Steve Rudner of Equality Texas.

If the court upholds Judge Garcia’s ruling overturning the ban, it will bolster LGBT activists’ case. If it becomes the first appeals court to toss out such a ruling, creating a circuit court split, it could put the Texas case on a fast-track to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Whether or not this ridiculous appeal is part of some meticulously orchestrated plot to entice the Supreme Court, or if it’s just the Attorney General’s blunt ignorance on display, only time will tell.  But one thing we can be sure of:  Greg Abbott is no friend of the LGBT community, or of any kind of equality for the state of Texas.  He has shown time after time that he doesn’t support women’s rights, property rights, or even the rights to obtain vital information.  This latest infringement on the rights of Texans should not be ignored.  If you care about personal freedom for anyone in any capacity, please do NOT vote for Greg  “Big Government” Abbott this November.

(image credit:  Texas Democratic Party)

Texas AG’s Office Turns Away Marriage Equality Petition

For a candidate that touts government transparency as a virtue, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s offices sure don’t practice what they preach.  First, it’s hiding dangerous chemical locations from Texas families, and now as it turns out, you can’t even bring a petition down to the AG’s office.  Here’s the story on that from Ryan Hoppe of Texas Public Radio

Same-sex families and gay-rights groups have filed a petition with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office, requesting requesting that they stop enforcing Texas’ ban on same-sex marriages.

Lauren Zurbrügg, development manager of Equality Texas, was one of those who showed up to drop off the 5,000-signature petition.

We’re standing here because unfortunately the attorney general’s office has refused to receive hand-delivered mail of any kind, including these signatures, despite that we confirmed with the AG’s office on Friday that we would be able to hand-deliver these signatures,” Zurbrügg said.

The attorney general’s office told the group it only receives mail through common mail carriers like FedEx.

This is not a policy that is listed anywhere on the Attorney General’s website.  Was it created out of thin air just to discriminate against today’s petitioners?  Who in Abbott’s office went back on their word to Equality Texas?  Our distinguished AG needs to find out the answers here, because he can be sure that Texans are going to keep asking.  Whether one agrees with the premise of the petition or not, all state residents deserve the right to petition their government in person, the same way opponents of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance did just weeks ago.

Perhaps Abbott did this in hopes of avoiding an extensive news cycle?  If that’s the case it didn’t work, and will serve to aid in the cause for marriage equality in Texas.