Texas gay marriage amendment expected to pass

News and responses from Texas...

A bill banning same-sex marriage may be one step closer to being placed on the November ballot. The amendment is currently in committee, but is expected to pass and land in the hands of Texas voters.

Cade Hammond and Chris Benfer live in Waco and long to be married. They’ve tried to get a marriage license more than once.

Texas law doesn’t allow same-sex couples to marry, so they can’t understand why some Texas law makers wrote a new bill that would extend that ban to the state constitution.

“It seems like the bill is just out there to slap us in the face,” Hammond says.

The Anti-Gay Texas Marriage Amendment would add language to the constitution that states a marriage is between a man and a woman. (source)

RESPONSES

Offer voters two amendments

Regarding the Tuesday’s front-page story, “THE LEGISLATURE / House OKs proposal to ban gay marriage / The measure to amend constitution now goes to Senate”: If the Texas Senate should decide to support the proposed constitutional ban on both gay marriage and civil unions, I hope the Legislature as a whole will offer the ban to voters in the form of two, independent constitutional amendments so that voters can vote on these two issues separately.

Many people have a strong, emotional reaction to the concept of “gay marriage.” Personally, I think it’s wonderful when two people fall in love and make a lifelong commitment to one another: That’s a beautiful part of life. And I really don’t see how such a loving, committed relationship between two gay people “threatens” anyone else’s heterosexual marriage. Nevertheless, it’s a fact of life that many people just plain, simply don’t like the term “gay marriage.” So I ask, how could anyone, with any sense of compassion, deny anyone else the right to visit his/her significant other in the hospital?

Civil unions grant these sorts of common sense, everyday rights to gay people: the same, exact rights — no more, no less — that married heterosexuals have.

Constitutionally ban “gay marriage” if it makes you feel better. But let’s at least be practical and fair.

RICHARD BRAASTAD Houston

How about banning divorce?

It is often stated that same-gender marriage undermines the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. I’ve never really understood how that could be so.

Statistics say homosexuals make up about 10 percent of our population, some of which I feel certain are not interested in getting married. The divorce rate in this country, though, is a staggering 50 percent. I’ve not seen statistics on adultery, but you all know who you are. If there is a true concern for the stability of families and marriage, why aren’t we addressing this overwhelming problem of divorce and adultery, which are definitely affecting the nuclear family?

Can you imagine the uproar if a ban on divorce or adultery were proposed for the Texas Constitution? That would “inconvenience” a few too many people, wouldn’t it?

It’s time we all look ourselves in the mirror face the real problems. Let’s start with hypocrisy.

DEVON AVERY Houston