Protect Marriage





   Some ideas are so bizarre people assume there is 


no chance they will be adopted.  That may have been 


true in a saner age but no more. That's why our Texas 


Legislature must act in this coming session to keep 


marriage a two-sex arrangement.  And Texas voters 


should make this a campaign issue.


   The threat of same sex marriage took tangible form 


in 1993 when a court in Hawaii ruled that restricting 


marriage to opposite sex couples violated the equal 


rights provision in the state constitution. Texas 


lawmakers should have acted then since Texas has a 


similar provision in its constitution.  In addition, the 


U.S. Constitution requires each state to give "full faith 


and credit" to the "public acts, records and judicial 


proceedings of every other State."  Clearly, if two 


persons of the same sex married each other  in some 


other state, Texas could be forced refusing to 


recognize that marriage. Nothing was done in the 


Legislature and the 1994 campaign season went by 


with no mention of this ticking time-bomb. 


   It might seem lawmakers could easily head off 


same-sex marriage by legislation or amending the 


state constitution but that has not been the case.  In 


Hawaii a state commission recommendation to 


legalize gay marriage was rejected by a legislative 


panel as were proposals to establish a domestic 


partnership registration and to extend the legal 


definition of marriage.  So the matter sits where the 


court left it -- with no enforceable bar to gay marriages. 


   In South Dakota, where a more traditional outcome 


might be expected, a bill to prohibit same-sex 


marriage was rejected by a legislative committee.  


This is the second time such legislation failed in South 


Dakota.    


   In recent years, numerous cities are giving same-


sex relationships more or less official recognition and 


many major corporations grant homosexual liaisons 


the same status as marriage for purposes of 


insurance and other employee benefits.     While 


voters should certainly find out where legislative 


candidates stand on this issue, it is by no means 


certain a state can act unilaterally to limit marriage to 


heterosexual couples. But the Constitution does give 


Congress the power to prescribe how these records 


and proceeding shall be proved and "the effect 


thereof," so we should also get commitments from 


congressional candidates.   


   This issue is fundamental to the nature of our culture 


and civilization.  We have already waited too long to 


deal with it.