Gay Marriage

Dear Texas: You Know You ARE Actually Part Of The United States, Right?

Of course Texas has its own interpretation of how marriage equality should apply...

By Kathryn Rubino on June 29, 2015 9:49 am

If you spent the weekend in a daze of rainbows and glitter after Friday’s Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, and you aren’t sure how you’re going to get back to reality on this bright Monday morning, don’t worry: Texas is there to bring you crashing back to reality.

Yesterday, the Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, issued a statement giving his take on the Obergefell decision, and how he believes it should apply to Texas. Yeah… they do things different down there. It is, perhaps, an expected shot across the bow from tenacious conservatives who do not want to concede the issue of marriage equality.

Friday, the United States Supreme Court again ignored the text and spirit of the Constitution to manufacture a right that simply does not exist. In so doing, the Court weakened itself and weakened the rule of law, but did nothing to weaken our resolve to protect religious liberty and return to democratic self-government in the face of judicial activists attempting to tell us how to live.

The astonishing thing about this statement is how bafflingly backwards Paxton has gotten the entire issue. If anyone is telling anyone “how to live,” it’s those who would stop loving couples from marrying due to an antiquated notion of who has access to that institution.

For anyone who’d spent any amount of time over the weekend watching Fox News, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Paxton also has the need to rage, rage against the dying of state workers’ “religious freedoms.” Facts be damned.

Importantly, the reach of the Court’s opinion stops at the door of the First Amendment and our laws protecting religious liberty… Our religious liberties find protection in state and federal constitutions and statutes. While they are indisputably our first freedom, we should not let them be our last.

…

Texas must speak with one voice against this lawlessness, and act on multiple levels to further protect religious liberties for all Texans, but most immediately do anything we can to help our County Clerks and public officials who now are forced with defending their religious beliefs against the Court’s ruling.

The Obergefell decision requires recognition of gay couples’ secular, civil right to get married. The Supreme Court does not and cannot change anyone’s religious views on the institution of marriage. Religions have a curious tendency to lag behind social progress — or maybe more accurately — religions are often used as a fig leaf for those who reject change. The justifications in Paxton’s letter are eerily similar to the language used decades ago about interracial marriage and the Loving v. Virginia case. Looking into my crystal ball, they’ll find a similar fate in the waste bin of history.

Paxton does acknowledge that following his advice could will almost certainly get local clerks in trouble, facing litigation and/or fines — which is at least an indication that Paxton has fleeting contact with reality.

This open letter reads like a petulant child screaming at the injustice of having to eat his broccoli. Well lil’ Kenny, you may not like it now, but some day, when you’re all grown up, you just might thank the Supreme Court for making you give marriage equality to all.

Gay Marriage Opponents Mimic Objections to Interracial Marriage, Forde-Mazrui Says [University of Virginia School of Law]
A Unique Religious Exemption From Antidiscrimination Laws in the Case of Gays? Putting the Call for Exemptions for Those Who Discriminate Against Married or Marrying Gays in Context [Wake Forest Law Review]
Attorney General Paxton: Religious Liberties of Texas Public Officials Remain Constitutionally Protected After Obergefell v. Hodges [Texas Attorney General]

Earlier: The Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Marriage Equality Nationwide
‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ Does Not Supersede The ‘Supremacy Clause.’