This.
Law enforcement officials, state legislators, faith leaders and a great-grandmother are among those lending their voices to a new campaign to bring marriage equality to Texas.
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.”
I’m delighted to see this. I encourage you to visit TxForMarriage.org and read the stories. Show the website to anyone you may know that doesn’t yet believe in equality. I’d love for everyone to see the justice and rightness in this cause and come around to it on their own, and I agree with Texas Leftist that the religious community needs to be engaged as much and as respectfully as possible, but we all know there will be holdouts, and we all know who they are. So I’ll be just as happy if the Fifth Circuit and/or the Supreme Court fulfills their darkest nightmares and jams marriage equality down their throats, if that’s what it takes. We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, either is fine by me. Texas Politics and Equality Texas have more.