Two gay couples filed a Federal Lawsuit in San Antonio on Monday seeking to overturn Texas' ban on Marriage Equality. The San Antonio Express News reports:
'A federal lawsuit was filed Monday challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage, and it seeks a court order barring Texas officials from enforcing it.
“In Texas, Plaintiffs cannot legally marry their partner before family, friends, and society — a right enjoyed by citizens who wish to marry a person of the opposite sex. And should they become married in a state that has established marriage equality, Texas explicitly voids their marriage,” said the suit, filed in San Antonio by attorney Barry Chasnoff of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. “There is no rational basis, much less a compelling government purpose, for Texas to deny plaintiffs the same right to marry enjoyed by the majority of society.”
The suit names as plaintiffs two same-sex couples, Mark Pharris and Vic Holmes and Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman, but makes it clear the litigation is pursuing rights for a larger group of people in similar situations.'
“In Texas, Plaintiffs cannot legally marry their partner before family, friends, and society — a right enjoyed by citizens who wish to marry a person of the opposite sex. And should they become married in a state that has established marriage equality, Texas explicitly voids their marriage,” said the suit, filed in San Antonio by attorney Barry Chasnoff of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. “There is no rational basis, much less a compelling government purpose, for Texas to deny plaintiffs the same right to marry enjoyed by the majority of society.”
The suit names as plaintiffs two same-sex couples, Mark Pharris and Vic Holmes and Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman, but makes it clear the litigation is pursuing rights for a larger group of people in similar situations.'
This is encouraging news, however we will have to see how this plays out in court. Maybe we can drag Texas into the 21st Century before all is said and done. Meanwhile, over in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Senate passed their Marriage Equality bill out of committee to the floor of the Senate for a vote. The bill is expected to pass the Senate and go on to the house where Democratic leaders say they now have enough votes to pass the bill into law. This would make Hawaii the 15th state with Marriage Equality if all goes according to plan.
Slowly, Step by Step, State by State the forces for Equality are winning the Marriage battle. The pace of the march has definitely picked up here in the last couple of years, let's hope it does not take as long to get the second fifteen as it did the first.
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