Stuff like this was inevitable. Leaders of two Christian groups want City Council to stop extending benefits to domestic partners of city employees, now that the state attorney general has called the benefits unconstitutional. City officials reject the demand, at least for now. Pastor Gerald Ripley of Voices for Marriage and Philip Sevilla of Texas [...]
Posts Tagged ‘gay rights’
Rick Perry feels persecuted by gay people
I got nothin‘. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said Sunday that he believes rejecting LGBT people is similar to fighting slavery during the pre-Civil War era. Appearing on the Family Research Council‘s program “Stand With Scouts Sunday,” the arch conservative governor urged the Boy Scouts to stand strong against any impulse to “tear apart” the [...]
Cities generally ignore Abbott’s domestic partnership opinion
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 [...]
No gay Scouts for Houston
Despite a proposed change at the national level, if you’re gay the Boy Scouts in Houston still don’t want you. On Monday, Sam Houston Area Council members said they would continue the current national policy of the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America. Like the military’s former “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy about gay troops, the [...]
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” [...]
The 2013 Houston Area Survey
The 2013 Houston Area Survey shows that tolerance is prevalent in our region. The results, according to institute co-director Stephen Klineberg, may reflect the region’s growing ethnic diversity, younger residents’ acceptance of change and the emergence of live-and-let-live “tolerant traditionalists.” Part of a larger survey of attitudes in the 10-county Houston metropolitan region, the 32nd [...]
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 [...]
Senate committee votes to repeal state sodomy law
About time. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted on Wednesday to repeal the state’s anti-gay sodomy law, a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. Texas, along with Oklahoma and Kansas, will be the only states that still have the law on the books after Montana’s legislature approved its repeal of the measure [...]
Romeo and Romeo and Juliet and Juliet
This is a small step forward, but it’s an important step. In a state where attempts to expand gay rights have hit a wall of conservative Republicans, a Senate committee on Tuesday approved a bill to provide a new legal protection for sexually active gay teens. Under Senate Bill 1316, gay and lesbian teens who [...]
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 [...]
It’s still OK to be gay at Texas A&M
It was touch and go for awhile there. Here’s the Dallas Voice from Friday: Texas A&M Student Body President John L. Claybrook has vetoed an anti-gay bill passed by the Student Senate on Wednesday that would have allowed students to opt out of funding the campus GLBT Resource Center with their activity fees if they have religious [...]
House debates its budget
As you know, yesterday was Budgetpalooza in the House. The House budget puts more money into public education and less into health and human services than a Senate proposal that passed the upper chamber last month. “No one is or will be entirely happy with this bill, but there is something for everyone this year,” [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Some people still want to move backwards on equality
I’ve noted several bills that aim to move Texas forward, however incrementally, towards greater equality. These are all good and fine things, but don’t mistake their existence for evidence that the Legislature is through trying to move us backwards. The first Texas school district to offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners is under fire [...]
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. [...]
We need to fix birth certificates
This needs to happen. Texas law prevents gay parents from both being listed on supplemental birth certificate forms for adoptive children. The forms provide space for only one mother, a woman, and one father, a male. The gender-specific language was added in 1997 as a part of a renewed commitment to conservative values, said the [...]
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 [...]
Pushing for equality in Waco
Glad to hear it. A group of Waco residents is seeking a city ordinance to bar public and private employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Advocates of the measure plan to propose it Thursday to the city’s Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee and hope to get Waco City Council to consider it [...]
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 [...]
Patrick wants AG opinion domestic partner benefits
Gotta keep an eye on those tricky gays and the people who want to treat them as equals. State Sen. Dan Patrick on Friday asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office to issue an opinion on whether government entities that provide domestic partner insurance benefits are violating the state constitution. Patrick, R-Houston, said his request was [...]
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 [...]
The ballot propositions we won’t have
Today is the 78th day before the November 6 election. That makes it the statutory deadline for ordering an election, as noted by the Secretary of State. They cite Sec. 201.054 of the Elections Code for this, which seems wrong to me; Sec. 201.051 appears to be more on point, though that still doesn’t specifically [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Harry Potter and the Truly Awful Presidential Candidates
You tell ‘em, Daniel Radcliffe. [Daniel Radcliffe, star of the "Harry Potter" movies, says] that he has been “disgusted, amazed, stunned” by candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination, such as Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann, who have been openly hostile to gay rights. “But they disgusted me less than candidates like Rick Perry, who madethat ridiculous [...]
Non-discrimination ballot referendum coming
I’ve been waiting for this. Activists are preparing a petition to put a referendum on Houston’s November ballot, calling for a ban on discrimination against gays and permission for the city to grant health insurance benefits to the unmarried partners of city employees. If organizers collect the 20,000 signatures needed to get it on the [...]