Texas The Same-Sex Marriage

The United States, a country that proclaims itself as a free country and that stands for individual's freedom, is denying the right of getting married and divorced to a specific group of citizens, homosexuals. To understand the issue, it is necessary to start from the marriage definition. “The laws and constitution of the State of Texas define marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman.” In other words, marriages of gays and lesbians are not legal. However, the process to change this definition has already begun. Today, the same -sex marriage is legal in Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Recently, in Dallas, Texas a judge divorced a gay couple admitting that it was unconstitutional to deny them the right to get divorced. To many, this case opens the door for the legal recognition of homosexual couples in Texas. Although this can be considered as advancement for the gay community, there are many people who continue opposing to the issue. This opposition can be seen in the article, “One gay marriage, empathy is a two-way street” by Rood Drecher. This article was published on November 6, 2009 in the editorial section of the Dallas Morning News. It can be inferred from the article that the author opposes to the legal recognition of homosexual marriages. Should the same-sex marriage be banned in Texas? In my opinion, it should be legally recognized.

First of all, gay marriage should not be banned because it violates the Texans' equal rights and freedom. Everyone is free to choose the person with whom he or she wants to share his or her life. If a person chooses somebody of the same sex, Texas government should not interfere with this important, personal decision, and government should not deny the right to get married or divorced to this person. Mr. Dreher, in his article, “One gay marriage, empathy is a two-way street,” mentions some of the negative consequences of recognizing of gay marriage. For example, he writes, “And thoughtful traditionalists understand that legalizing same-sex marriage almost certainly would bring about serious restrictions on freedom of speech and association, particularly for churches and religious organizations. Nobody is going to force pastors to marry same-sex couples.” He points out the church's restrictions, but what about the restrictions of people's decisions? It is a direct violation of individual's freedom. Moreover, Mr. Dreher says, “Gay marriage opponents are not crazy to fear what may be done to them should same-sex marriage become the law of the land. In California, supporters of Proposition 8, which repealed same-sex marriage, have suffered vandalism, job and business loss, intimidation and harassment by activists.” Once again, the author just worries about the opponents' situation. From his statement, it can be understood that it is good to keep illegal the homosexual marriage in order of protecting opponents' integrity. Mr. Dreher mentions the potential problems that these people could face, ignoring the discrimination and abuses that homosexuals facing everyday. Although Texas is a very traditional, conservative state, fortunately significant changes are occurring that narrowed the gap of the same-sex marriage legalization. The article called, “Judge: Texas Ban on Gay Marriage Unconstitutional,” published in the DFW News, on October 2, 2009 talks about a judge who divorced a gay couple in Texas. The Judge Tena Callahan conceded the divorce to a homosexual couple who had gotten married in Massachusetts. According to the article, Judge Callahan said, "the state's bans on same-sex marriages violate the constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the law." This is a clear evidence of advancement in favor of legalization the gay marriage.

In addition, the same-sex marriages should not be banned because it ignores the rights of people as a couple. Texas law opposes to legalize homosexual marriages. However, gay couples are stable couples that live in the same as heterogeneous couple live, sharing their lives, their place and their money. Therefore gays should have the same rights as heterogeneous have. Stable homosexual couples in Texas just dream when their relationship will be socially and legally accepted, and when they will have the same rights than the rest of the tax payers. According to the article, "Legal and economic benefits of marriage" published on the Religious & Tolerance Organization, “on the order of 1,400 legal rights are conferred upon married couples in the U.S. Typically these are composed of about 400 state benefits and over 1,000 federal benefits.” In heterogeneous marriages, the partner have some legal rights such as: joint insurance policies for home, auto and health, dissolution and divorce protections such as community property, immigration and residency for partners from other countries, inheritance automatically in the absence of a will; benefits such as annuities, pension plans, Social Security, and Medicare. These are just few of the legal rights that heterogeneous spouses have. However, NONE of these rights applies to homosexual partners in Texas even though they fulfill spouses' roles. It is very embarrassing that Texas law support homophobia, but it is even ore embarrassing that governor supports this discrimination. According to an article called, “Judge calls Texas' gay-marriage ban into question,” published on The Dallas Morning News on October 2, 2009, Governor Rick Perry supports the constitutional prohibition on gay marriage saying, “"Texas voters and lawmakers have repeatedly affirmed the view that marriage is defined as between one man and one woman," he said in a prepared statement. "I believe the ruling is flawed and should be appealed."” But the truth is that gay partners have the same function in a relationship as the heterogeneous spouses have; however, the Texas constitution denies all of the rights to them, which is considered as discrimination. The Texan constitution should legally protect all partners in a relationship regardless their sexual inclination.

In conclusion, the same-sex marriages and divorces should be legally recognized in Texas because there are not reasons to ban them. The only reason could be homophobia. People, especially men do not like homosexuals and they cannot accept seeing them as legal couple. As it was said before homosexuals should have the same rights to get married and get divorced as the same as heterogeneous have. Denying this right is a violation of their freedom. Also, they should have the same legal rights that heterogeneous spouses derive from their partners such as joint to insurance policies, pension plans and immigration residence for partners and property among other legal rights.