Less than three weeks till the appeal is heard by the Fifth Circuit.
Fourteen states allowed same-sex marriage when Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman filed a lawsuit late last year challenging Texas’ constitutional ban on marriages that are not between a man and a woman.
The couple, married in Massachusetts in 2009, lives in Austin and collided with Texas law when they could not both be listed on the birth certificate of their first child. They hope the law is changed before the birth of their second.
“There are moments in our lives that are flashbulb moments,” De Leon said during a town hall event last week, describing the decision she and Dimetman reached to challenge the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
With the case heading to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans next month, De Leon, Dimetman and gay rights advocates are holding their breath, hoping that Texas is on the verge of its own flashbulb moment. A federal district judge has already ruled in their favor, and if Texas’ appeals fail, the state may be compelled to join the almost three-quarters of the country that now allows same-sex marriage.
That sort of societal change would come at a time when Texas, the largest state with a same-sex marriage ban, is ushering in a new slate of Republican leaders and lawmakers with an even more conservative bent, including staunch opposition to gay marriage.
There’s nothing new in the story, it’s just a recap for those who might need it. The one question I don’t know how to answer right now is what the reaction and response from Republicans will be if and when the law is finally invalidated for good. The current (over)reactions give some idea, but the dawn of the same-sex marriage era in Texas is bigger than all that, and I don’t have a good feel for what the bounceback will be. I suppose the good news is that we may not get a Fifth Circuit ruling till the end of the session or close to it, so there may not be an opportunity for the revanchists to act. Who knows, maybe by 2017 their fire will have cooled a bit. I wouldn’t want to count on that, but crazier things have happened.