It’s nearing time to vote.. do you know all of the details?

Hey Houston. Are you familiar with the amendments up for vote, this November 8th? If you’re not, there’s one you should definately be aware of. Proposition Two, also know as the Texas Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment.

Prop. 2 will read as follows: “The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

The actual language of the amendment is: “Article I, Texas Constitution, (The Bill of Rights) is amended by adding Section 32 to read as follows:

Sec. 32. (a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.

(b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage. “

So what does this mean?

I’m going to come off sounding way left wing, and a little pissed off, so please bear with me. I promise, I will back up what I say, and I will make sense. Even if you, as one individual stated to me on the street, the other day, think “those damned queers should be shot, rather than allowed to marry,” please, give me the courtesy of reading my post.

First off, this amendment will server no other purpose than to write discrimination into the Texas Bill of Rights. That’s right, Houston. This amendment will make discrimination against gays and lesbians a right in the State of Texas.

‘BUT WAIT’, you’re saying… ‘Won’t this keep gays from marrying, therefore preserving the sanctity of marriage as a Christian institution?’

No. Well, technically, yes, but see… it’s already illegal for people of the same sex to marry (family code ? 2.001, 1997). It’s also already illegal to recognize same-sex marriages, or civil unions for same-sex couples (Family code ?6.204, 2003. Brought into being by SB 7, 2003). Additionally, laws have been on the record books as far back as the 1800’s, prohibiting the marriage, or civil union, of a same-sex couple. The laws I linked, above, are merely the newest.

So tell me, Houston, if it’s already illegal for homosexuals to marry, why does it need to be in our constitution. The amendment being affected is part of the Texas Bill of Rights. If Prop. 2 is passed, then discrimination against gays, lesbians, and transgendered people will become, in a sense, supported by our state’s constitution. Add to that the fact that you are doing nothing more than adding a law on top of a similar law that has already been on the books.

I think the No Nonsense in November campaign says it best, in this document, outlining the general nonsense of this proposition. To quote:

As Texans we’ve all watched and become appalled by the actions of the Texas Legislature. We have failure after failure to do the right thing for public education and school finance. We still have thousands of kids who can’t get access to health insurance. They’re about to force all of us to pay an unfair share of regressive taxes with education and state services still underfunded. It’s total nonsense. And with all of that undone, they have time to deal with sexy cheerleading and to now expect us to rubber stamp their nonsense of prohibiting many Texans from the ability to protect their property, their medical decisions, inheritance and hundreds of other rights and responsibilities granted through civil marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships and possibly even common law marriage.

They’re asking you to put this in the Texas Constitution: the fundamental document that defines us as Texans. For the first time in history, you are being asked to put a prohibition against someone’s human rights in a document that has long been seen as the place where you grant and expand protections for people.

That’s nonsense since it’s unnecessary. Marriage between people of the same sex is already illegal and the Legislature isn’t about to change that for a long, long time.

In their effort to enact this political wedge issue,they overreached with such legal nonsense that many believe it may also destroy the legal protections that thousands of Texans have through common law marriage. Other states which have adopted this language are already seeing judges overturn domestic violence cases just because there wasn’t a marriage certificate between two heterosexuals! The unintended consequences are staggering to imagine.

Read that one more time, very carefully, especially that last paragraph.

Did you see it? I know I sure did.
See, this law is worded as such that it prohibits the state from recognizing civil unions, even between hetereosexual (straight) couples. That includes common law marriage. Folks, there are literally tens of thousands of straight Texans that are common law married. These Texans face seeing their spousal rights and legal protections stripped away from them in one fail swoop, this November. It may be as if their marriage never existed in the first place. It is entirely possible that insurance companies could sue their clients for a return of the fees they paid out in spousal benefits to civil union and common law couples.

You want more information on how this amendment could effect heterosexual couples, maybe even you? Okay, see this page at NNN, that discusses the overly broad nature of the amendment.

Want my reasons for voting against the amendment? Here they are:

• Homosexual marriage and civil union is already illegal in the State of Texas and has been for a very long time. That’s not going to change, anytime soon.
• Writing this amendment into the constitution does nothing but place a foundation for discrimination against a very large portion of society into our bill of rights. Public discrimination has never, ever been a right.
• This amendment is far too broad. It will have far-reaching effects against alredy-existing common law and civil unions for heterosexual (straight, non-gay) couples, including the dissolution of the legal status of their relationship, the removal of all spousal benefits, and the possible removal of some domestic violence protection (for more information, see this page (in html. Original document is in PDF, here).
• Instead of concentrating on more important issues (like education, school finance, healthcare, etc…), the Texas legislature has been concentrating on passing a law that has already been passed.

If you want to read more about Proposition 2, please visit the LGRL page on the NNN website, or the No Nonsense In November website, directly.

If you’d like to help out in Houston, I’ll be posting an entry very shortly with details on the happenings in Houston.

I urge each of you, Houston, to pledge to vote against this amendment. Drop your comment to this entry, and pledge to vote against discrimination, future problems for both homosexual (gay) and heterosexual (straight) couples, and the pointless waste of our legislature’s time in coming up with a law that already exists.

Please. Pledge. Vote.

(this post echoed at the Houston MetroBlog.)

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