Texas Voters Approve Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

Voters in Texas have overwhelmingly approved changing the Texas state constitution to include a ban on same-sex marriage. The approval makes Texas the 19th state to take that step, and doing so gives social conservatives a key victory going into next year’s state elections. The controversial proposition was soundly supported by Gov. Rick Perry, as well as by many churches throughout the state. "That's where the victory was won, from the pulpits of the state of Texas," said State Rep. Warren Chisum, a Pampa Republican who wrote the amendment. "The people of Texas have spoken and they intend that marriage should be between one man and one woman."

The executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Matt Foreman, said that the outcome of the vote was not unexpected. "When you put a fundamental right of a minority up for popular vote, it's almost impossible to win," said Foreman. "I'm not sure the right to desegregate schools, the freedom to marry another race or even access to contraception in many states would exist if those issues were put up for a vote." Over three-fourths of the Texans who voted favored the amendment. Although Texas already has a law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the proposal approved yesterday will lock that definition—defining marriage as "the union of one man and one woman"— into the state constitution, making it more difficult for a future Legislature to change.

Both sides of the debate ran a largely grass-roots, word-of-mouth campaign, targeting viewers through telephone calls and television ads. Opponents of the measure likened the amendment to historical discrimination against blacks, Hispanics, woman, and Hews, saying that it would affect about 43,000 same-sex couples living in Texas. Supporters of the amendment said that the state has for years banned polygamy, and has a right to set a high standard for marriage. "We should protect the institution of marriage as it is defined in law today," said amendment sponsor Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine. "We should hold that higher up than any other relationship." Staples said the U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized the right of states to define marriage, because polygamy is against the law in every state.

The amendment will not affect any private contracts between individuals or corporations relating to guardianships, hospital visitation, or entitlement to proceeds from insurance policies. But Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said that the amendment could affect gay adoptions or companies that offer domestic partner benefits protected by civil unions. "We're going to carve out a class of individuals and say you cannot share those benefits," Shapleigh said. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said that at least one major Texas insurance company has stopped offering health-care coverage to domestic partners after Texas passed its Defense of Marriage Act two years ago. Ellis said the ban on same-sex marriages is reminiscent of the laws written by Texas senators decades ago to discriminate against black people. "At least they had the good sense to never write their bigotry into the state constitution," Ellis said. "In some of our sister states, they did write that trash into their constitution, and they've had holy H getting it out."

But Staples said that the amendment should have no impact on companies that offer domestic partner benefits, and that the amendment is designed to protect the institution of marriage, not discriminate against gays. "Texas is not Alabama. This is not discrimination," Staples said. "Texans of all different colors have said this is not about discrimination."