Thursday, February 19, 2015

A Wild Wild Day In Texas

Fifty-one weeks ago I blogged the day that federal judge Orlando Garcia declared the Texas constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.


Four months ago I grumbled here when SCOTUS did not choose to address any marriage equality cases.

Last month it was about the first weddings in Florida, and wishes for the Fifth Circuit hearings to go well.


Last night I looked at the decision in a Travis County (Austin, Texas) probate court, and shook my head at the early celebrations that Texas was suddenly a marriage equality state. I said, "we aren't really any closer to marriage equality than we have been for a year."


This morning I put that post on my Facebook page and moments later saw the news--


A judge ordered the Travis County Clerk to give a marriage license to Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, and the couple wed immediately after. WOW!


Much of the morning was a whirlwind, as we heard more about the story--that no, Travis County wasn't giving marriage licenses to everyone--there was a medical issue. And then the Attorney General started piping up, calling for immediate stays to shut everything down, and going so far as to declare the marriage null and void.


He has ignored two court rulings stating that a Texas law is unconstitutional to tell two women who have loved one another for over three decades, raising two children and now battling cancer, that HE is upholding the law. 


Villainous. Cruel. Utterly unnecessary.


Within four months, I fully expect marriage equality to be the law of the land, here in Texas and across the United States. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is not standing on the side of love, or on the side of history.








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