Texas Proposition 2 Debate
EDITORIAL From The Austin American Statesman
Discrimination does nothing to 'protect' marriage
EDITORIAL BOARD
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Over the past five years in Texas, about 635,000 divorce cases have been filed in state and county courts to end a marriage between a man and woman. But Texans are being told that on Nov. 8, in a statewide election, they can defend the institution of marriage — not by banning divorce, or making it more difficult to marry in the first place, but by voting for a constitutional amendment to ban marriage between people of the same sex.
A ban on gay marriage would do nothing — nothing at all — to protect or enhance traditional marriage. We urge Texans to vote against Proposition 2, the proposed amendment, because it's true purpose is to discriminate against gay Texans.
The proof that this is really aimed at gays, not protecting traditional marriage, is that the proposed amendment would also ban the state from recognizing "any legal status identical or similar to marriage."
A case can be made that the social institution of marriage is troubled and needs help. But no case can be made that it is gay people who threaten it. Texas has never recognized marriage between people of the same sex, and state law forbids it.
By installing the existing ban on gay marriage into the state constitution, opponents of gay marriage want to make it as difficult as possible to make any change in the law, even if a majority of voters and their legislators eventually change their minds.
Any change to a constitutional ban on gay marriage would first require a two-thirds vote of both the Texas House and Senate and then go before voters, as opposed to the simple legislative majority required to change a law.
Another reason critics of gay marriage want Proposition 2 is distrust of the courts, which they fear could discover in the state constitution's guarantee of equal rights for all citizens a new right to same-sex marriage. But as a group, Texas judges are a conservative lot, and that includes the Texas Supreme Court, which is made up entirely of Republicans. And in Texas, such judges are subject to election.
Some supporters of Proposition 2 want it to pass as a message to federal judges, who are appointed, that a majority of voters oppose gay marriage. But federal law already protects states that ban gay marriage from having to legally recognize same-sex marriages performed in the few states that recognize them or similar arrangements, such as civil unions.
In short, there's no pressing legal reason to pass Proposition 2. In fact, its passage would be a step backward for Texas.
Texas and the nation have made enormous progress in the past half-century in knocking down laws and social practices that excluded people from all the benefits of citizenship in a free society because they were the wrong color, the wrong sex, had physical disabilities or were gay.
But Proposition 2 would anchor in the constitution a prejudice that same-sex couples — citizens who work, pay taxes and obey the law like everyone else — are not entitled to official recognition of their intimate, committed relationships to each other. And it would make it as difficult as possible to ever obtain such recognition from the Legislature, even if a majority came to support it.
It remains a terrific irony that, even as gay Texas citizens who want to marry cannot, "straight" Texans who can marry file some 120,000 divorce actions a year. And yet voters are told that the way to "protect" marriage is to pass a constitutional amendment attacking gay Texans.
It's not needed to defend marriage, and voters should reject Proposition 2.
source:http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/10/9GayMarriage_edit.html
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after reading this:
I agree with State Representative Senfronia Thompson's testimony
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But This Is Bushland
More than any previous visit, one enters Texas aware that this is the state running the world—via that man in the White House, who will rule for another four dreadful years of war, debt, and arrogance, and cultural decline. All charms aside, this is a fact difficult to ignore. I've always adored Texas, but this paradox requires some rethinking of relationship between culture and politics.
The political culture here is dominated by white Christian males who enthusiastically voted for Bush by 75%. Add the words conservative and protestant to the mixed and you have a consensus for Bush that approaches nearly 100%. One doubts that any dictator or Pope in the history of the world enjoyed such universal uncritical support from a dominant group.
Yet in casual discussions with actual members of this group—having cleverly won their trust by being a white male myself—I found virtually no awareness of any of the basic facts concerning the ballooning budget, the chaos and bloodshed of Iraq, the vast expansion of federal power, the shredding of civil liberties, or anything else.
To speak of these matters comes across as boring and irrelevant as a lecture on the chemical properties of the rings of Saturn. All Texans know is that their man in Washington guarding their interests, slaying bad guys, and doing something to make everyone really prosperous.
The big threats they see on the horizon are gay marriage and Islam—sentiments easily manipulated by a cynical political elite.
These charming and peaceful people who go on about what the Middle East needs now are the same ones who routinely and dismissively refer to non-Texans as Yankees, with a studied indifferentism. Iraqi, Iowan, it's all the same to them. It's bad enough that the people of the state to have given the world this man and celebrated his works, but to have done so with willful ignorance of what he has done to the country and the world, and with little concern for the fate of anyone but themselves, this is really unforgivable.
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How will Brownwood & Brown County Vote on Prop 2 ? 90% Yes 10% No ?
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