or, so our state legislature seems to feel…
…which is kinda fucked up.
first off, a quick excerpt from a two and a half year old bit so i don’t have to re-type the obvious:
let me pause for a second and let everybody know my honest opinion about this once and for all – if you consider gay marriage objectionable because it says it’s wrong in the bible, that’s okay. of course, it also says you can own slaves, shouldn’t talk to a woman when she’s on her period, and bunches of other stuff we don’t think is right but never mind that now. if your religion doesn’t agree with gay marriage, i don’t have an issue with that – simply don’t allow gay couples to marry in your church. have your clergymen (keep in mind the bible says women are property, not equal to men, and therefore can NOT be clergy – hey, if you’re gonna follow the book, follow the whole fuckin’ thing!) not perform the gay wedding ceremonies lest they be excommunicated. that’s fair.
but from the LEGAL aspect, where gay folks can LEGALLY marry, and have all the LEGAL rights thereof (shared property, filing taxes jointly, and all other spousal LEGAL rights) religion has no place in the argument as we have a seperation of church and state, and last time i checked all men, regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation are created equal in the eyes of the law – so close the bible and give them the rights they’re due as law-abiding, voting, tax-paying members of society and shut the fuck up. hell, at least it will give you something extra to bitch about on sundays, right?
that all being said, hb 623 in the texas state legislature is bullshit.
there are many times in my life i’ve been very proud being from texas…the creation of this bill is the OPPOSITE of those moments.
it’s a fun read – it basically says we can’t FORBID gay marriage, so we’ll just forbid public money (i.e. the “i pay my taxes!” fund) from supporting it…and by “supporting it” i mean they will deny salary, pension, and benefits from anybody paid by tax dollars at the state OR local level. so that clerk that files the marriage license? loses all their pay and benefits. the justice of the peace who performs the ceremony? loses all their pay and benefits. wanna challenge it in court? fine and dandy, but this amendment prevents state funds from being used to enforce the ruling in your favor, which they can’t do because this bitch also states that no funds will be allowed to be used to finance the case and that all cases will be settled in favor of the defendant (i.e. the texas government you’re suing) and they’re awarded all costs…and they’ve also written a provision barring the feds from stopping it via the 11th amendment and a state or local government may not “recognize, grant, or enforce a same sex marriage license”.
of course the way around this is easy – you don’t issue “same sex marriage licenses” – you just issues marriage licenses, just like the one the ufw and i got, but the names on them could be two people who just happen to be the same sex.
but that’s just section two. section one, in case you’re curious, simply titles this the “preservation of sovereignty and marriage act” because the “we hate fucking queers act” didn’t test well among focus groups.
section three further covers the inevitable law suits – wanna rule this bitch unconstitutional? you have to specify exactly which part…and if that PART is ruled to be so, the rest of it stands alone as an enforceable amendment…so all the parts have to be dragged into court one by pricey one.
and finally the real scary part…section four.
it goes into effect immediately if it gets the 2/3rds vote that all amendments need to go into effect…but even without the votes it goes into effect on september first, regardless of votes, unless it’s killed bit by bit in the meantime.
god help us.