Good for them. Attorney General Greg Abbott’s opinion [last] week, while not binding, is the latest of several challenges to same-sex benefits across the country that so far have had mixed results in the courts and prompted changes after officials in other states took action. In Texas, local governments from El Paso to San Antonio [...]
Posts Tagged ‘gay marriage’
Abbott opines against domestic partnership benefits
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. The state Constitution prohibits government entities from recognizing domestic partnerships and offering insurance benefits to those couples, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wrote in an opinion on Monday. In the nonbinding opinion, Abbott determined that local jurisdictions that offer such benefits “have created and recognized something” [...]
There are a lot of Republicans who want to move us backwards on equality
Drew Springer is at it again, and he’s got help. In the last year, two Central Texas school districts have announced plans to offer employee benefits to same-sex couples, but one bill heard Tuesday at the Capitol would make that more difficult across the state. Pflugerville ISD announced the change last fall, making it the [...]
The remaining holdouts on marriage equality
Last week, we talked about the Democratic members of the Legislature that had voted for the anti-gay marriage Constitutional amendment of 2005, and where they stood now. Along those lines, The Hill checks on the situation in Congress. Eleven House Democrats are on record as opposing gay marriage, even as support within their party for [...]
Getting on the same page on marriage equality
Harold Cook asks a darned good question. As SCOTUS hears arguments on marriage equality this week, it reminds me of when the Texas Legislature voted for the state constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage in Texas eight years ago. Texas voters subsequently approved the measure that November by a 3-to-1 margin. I wonder if any of [...]
SCOTUS same-sex marriage cases likely won’t affect Texas
Not yet, anyway. But it’s a matter of time. Charles “Rocky” Rhodes is a professor at South Texas College of Law. He says the case that involves the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is narrowly focused. “The provision of DOMA that’s under challenge here is the aspect of DOMA that prohibits the federal government [...]
The Equality 2013 Poll
From Equality Texas: The Equality Texas Foundation envisions a state where all Texans are treated equally, with dignity and respect. Equal rights for all are fundamental to our society and are long overdue. Everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, deserves to be treated fairly and equally. Many of these equal rights issues are [...]
Marriage equality bill filed
As I said before, some things you do because they’re the right thing to do. State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, filed a bill Thursday to permit same-sex couples to marry, calling it a “Valentine’s Day gift to all Texans.” His measure is one of several bills filed recently that deal with gay rights issues. [...]
Repealing the Texas double secret illegal anti-gay marriage amendment
Some things you do because they’re the right thing to do. Reps. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, are seeking to reverse the state’s prohibition against gay marriage or same-sex civil unions. Their proposed constitutional amendments — HJR 77 and HJR 78 – would repeal a 2005 amendment passed by Texas voters that bans [...]
The Municipal Equality Index
From the inbox: A new report on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality in America’s cities by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, in partnership with the Equality Federation Institute and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute, rated 137 cities across the nation, including seven Texas cities. TheMunicipal Equality Index (MEI), the first ever nationwide [...]
How long before marriage equality comes to Texas?
As is so often the case, the state of Texas will lag behind the rest of the country on the issue. If DOMA is struck down, questions will be raised about states that don’t recognize same-sex marriages and if it matters where a couple lives to receive federal benefits, [Ken Upton, a senior staff attorney [...]
Carona comes out for equality
I have three things to say about this. In a rare if not unprecedented move for a Republican state legislator in Texas, Dallas Sen. John Carona expressed support for three key pieces of pro-equality legislation on Monday. Carona told Instant Tea he would support bills in Texas to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and [...]
NOH8 comes to Houston
Very cool. The NOH8 “photographic silent protest” comes to town Oct. 18 at the University of Houston. The shoot is hosted by the UH Council of Ethnic Organizations, from 4-7 p.m. in the University Center. NOH8 was created by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska and partner Jeff Parshley in response to Proposition 8 in California, which amended [...]
Chick-fil-A
So there’s been protests and counter-protests and editorials and clever menu ideas, and that’s only in the past week. I don’t think the Chick-fil-A saga is going to come to a resolution any time soon, so let’s remember what it’s all about in the first place. It isn’t that Dan Cathy opposes marriage equality or [...]
More than four, please
Not good enough. A majority of House Democrats have signed a brief to the Supreme Court opposing the Defense of Marriage Act (widely known as DOMA) — but not a majority of Texas Democrats. Only four of the state’s nine Democratic House members joined the “friends of the court” brief. They were Sheila Jackson Lee [...]
More on Latinos and marriage equality
From the inbox: Twenty-one of the nation’s leading Hispanic organizations announced today their endorsement of a first-of-its kind, comprehensive public-education campaign called Familia es Familia aimed at strengthening Latino voices to build support within the Latino community for acceptance of LGBT family members. Public opinion polls show that Latinos really do lead the way when [...]
Latinos and marriage equality
You’ve probably seen some coverage by now of how African American views of marriage equality have shifted in its favor in the wake of President Obama’s announcement that he now supports it. But what about Latinos and their views? The recent news coverage and analysis of this issue has focused almost exclusively on comparing the [...]
Why gay marriage is inevitable
Professor Stephen Klineberg – you know, the fancy movie star – looks at 30 years worth of Houston Area Survey data and sees the future. The findings from the 31st year of the Kinder Houston Area Survey (1982-2012) will be released this month. The three-decade span of these annual studies offers a rare opportunity to [...]
Todd tells Riggle to tone it down
Former Houston City Council member Rob Todd has a message for gay-obsessed Pastor Steve Riggle. During my days on City Council, I was considered an archconservative. Part of that reputation was a result of a lawsuit I filed against Mayor Lee Brown over his executive order extending equal rights to gay city employees. My concerns [...]
Stimulate the economy with marriage equality
If New York can do it… New York City made quite a bit of money on gay marriage — 200,000 bucks, in fact. Cash flow into the city’s marriage bureau shot up since August, when same-sex nups got enacted, according to the New York Post. The office took in $2.26 million — up from $2 [...]
Riggle continues his crusade
Pastor Steve Riggle continues to be obsessed with gays and lesbians. Taking advantage of his mega-church pulpit on Sunday morning, Pastor Steve Riggle of Houston’s Grace Community Church advanced his crusade against Mayor Annise Parker’s public support for same-sex marriage by urging Houston’s lesbian mayor to either stand up for traditional marriage “or do the [...]
Even the Mayor is allowed to have her own opinion
Despite what some people might think. The pastor of one of Houston’s megachurches is asking Mayor Annise Parker to resign if she will not cease promoting the legalization of same-sex marriage. “Respectfully, if you cannot uphold the Texas constitution, then you should do the honorable thing and step down,” Pastor Steve Riggle of Grace Community [...]
Harris County GOP to harass Mayor Parker about gay marriage
Bring it. The Harris County Republican Party is calling on its members to tell the mayor to back off on same-sex marriage. In an email blast sent out Monday, Chairman Jared Woodfill asks recipients to call or email the mayor “and tell her to support the Constitution and stand up for traditional marriage.” Parker recently [...]
Parker joins other mayors in push for marriage equality
Good for her. Good for all of them. Houston Mayor Annise Parker seized the vanguard of a drive by 78 mayors Friday to win the equal rights of marriage for gay couples, donning a national leadership role that contrasts sharply with her low-key demeanor back home. “This is an issue whose time has come,” Parker [...]
Transgender divorce
That sound you hear is another can of worms fixing to be opened. James Scott and Rebecca Robertson started married life quietly with a small church wedding. Thirteen years later, their union is ending — not so quietly. Robertson wants a court to declare the marriage void. Scott prefers a divorce. The complicating factor: Scott [...]
Our gay state
Is getting gayer, according to the Census. It’s no secret that Austin and Central Texas have much appeal for same-sex couples, but new census data from 2010 underscore the depth and breadth of the attraction. Among the highlights from an American-Statesman analysis of the data: • Travis County has the state’s highest rate — 1.25 [...]
Judge rules against Nikki Araguz
This is unfortunate. A judge has ruled that the marriage between a Wharton fire captain killed in the line of duty and his transgender wife was not legal, an attorney in the case said Tuesday. Frank Mann III, one of the attorneys representing family members of Thomas Trevino Araguz III, said he had received notice [...]
Why can’t a woman be more like a man?
The Texas Legislature would like for you to stay just exactly as you are, thank you very much. Two years after Texas became one of the last states to allow transgendered people to use proof of their sex change to get a marriage license, Republican lawmakers are trying to roll back the clock. Advocates for [...]
Austin gay divorce upheld
Gay divorce seekers are one for two in the state of Texas. Over the objections of state Attorney General Greg Abbott, an Austin appellate court has upheld the divorce of a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts. When a lower court granted their divorce in February of last year, Abbott’s office filed a petition to intervene in [...]
Abbott wants to block Austin gay divorce
Attorney General Greg Abbott is once again fighting to protect the sanctity of divorce in Texas. Texas law not only limits marriage to opposite-sex couples, it forbids any action — including divorce — that recognizes or validates a same-sex marriage obtained out of state, said James Blacklock, a lawyer in Attorney General Greg Abbott’s appellate [...]
Appeals court overrules gay divorce ruling
Gay couples who got married outside of Texas can’t get a divorce inside Texas, according to the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas. Two men won’t be able to turn their Massachusetts marriage into a Texas divorce, the Dallas Court of Appeals ruled today. At Attorney General Greg Abbott’s request, the court overruled a lower [...]
Abbott declines to offer transgender marriage opinion
Remember this, from back in May? The El Paso County attorney wants the state’s top lawyer to tell her whether she can issue a marriage certificate to a woman and a biological male who had a sex change operation to become a woman. County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal, in a letter sent last month, asked [...]
Prop 8 overturned
Good. In a major victory for gay rights advocates, a federal judge on Wednesday struck down a California ban on same-sex marriage. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision to overturn the voter-approved ban, known as Proposition 8, came in response to a lawsuit brought by two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco [...]