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United States News Title: Gay rights advocates (They mean faggots) warn bills would undercut favorable court ruling on same-sex marriage Texas State Rep. Cecil Bell, Jr., center, gets some helpful hands from fellow legislators as he prepares to cut a 10-year anniversary wedding cake to celebrate the state’s same-sex marriage ban during Faith and Family Day on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, at the Texas Capitol. (Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman/TNS) Leaders of civil-rights and liberal groups are warning Texas lawmakers not to damage the state’s economy and reputation by passing bills designed to undercut a possibly favorable ruling on same-sex marriage by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer.
As deadlines for passing bills begin to kick in this week, the Legislature’s two chambers could take floor action on Monday and Tuesday on as many as three bills on same-sex marriage.
Proponents say the measures are necessary to defend states’ rights and religious freedom against activist federal judges and gay rights zealots. Critics say the bills are blatant efforts to turn back the clock and deny equal treatment to people with a different sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Texas is pioneering a legislative effort to subvert a potential Supreme Court ruling on marriage and lock in discrimination against gay and transgender people and their families,” Kathy Miller, president of the left- leaning Texas Freedom Network, told reporters in a conference call Monday morning.
“If successful, the strategy could spread to other states, especially in the South,” she said. “But it definitely risks a major backlash from the business community and from Texas voters … that would damage the brand of Texas for a long time to come.”
Miller was alluding to controversies that flared in Indiana and Arkansas a couple of months ago after lawmakers in both states passed religious-refusal bills inspired by a spate of federal court victories by gays and lesbians seeking to overturn state bans of same-sex marriage.
The Texas bills are drawing national attention. Several reporters from national news media organizations participated in Monday’s press call.
Organizers hope to generate a groundswell of protests by Texans, especially to center-right members of the Texas House’s GOP leadership. Miller said bill opponents are less optimistic about their chances of stopping the bills in the Texas Senate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has shown his eagerness to pass similar legislation by successfully persuading senators to suspend Senate rules recently to allow late filing of one such bill, she said.
Magnolia Republican Rep. Cecil Bell’s bill affecting county clerks who issue marriage licenses could be debated on the House floor as early as Tuesday. The bill would bar state and local officials from issuing, enforcing or recognizing same-sex marriage licenses, even if the Supreme Court declares gay marriage a constitutional right.
It also would penalize liberal counties such as Travis County, where a state judge already has ordered a lesbian couple be granted a marriage license, by making any county clerk who grants a same-sex marriage license fork over the $30 fee to the state – rather than keep it for local use.
Chuck Smith, executive director of the gay rights group Equality Texas, called it “a mean spirited piece of legislation.”
Smith said it would ignore Texans’ growing acceptance of gay marriage and inflict unnecessary pain.
“It will be yet another state-sanctioned slap in the face to lesbian and gay couples who simply want to make a lifetime commitment to the person that they love,” he said.
The bill could generate costly lawsuits if the Supreme Court strikes down Texas’ 2005 gay marriage ban, said Smith and Rebecca Robertson, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas’ legal and policy director.
Robertson said county clerks would be caught between conflicting orders from judges, much like their counterparts in Alabama. In Alabama, a federal district court judge struck down that state’s same-sex marriage ban, but the state’s highest-ranking judge ordered officials not to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
“We’d absolutely be on the course that Alabama is on, where you just have chaos for the time being, until it’s sorted out,” she said.
As early as Monday, the full Senate could take up a bill protecting from lawsuits or other penalties any religious institution or its employees or clergy members that refuse to open facilities, provide services and sell goods to same-sex couples because it would violate “a sincerely held religious belief” to do so.
The House could take up a companion bill by McKinney GOP Rep. Scott Sanford as early as Tuesday.
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#3. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Well, if the acceptance is "growing" from 4% to 5%, I think I can see why it's being ignored.
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