In case you missed it, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott formally announced his campaign for governor in San Antonio on Sunday.
As we mentioned last week, Abbott’s record on LGBT issues is pretty awful. In fact, some would argue he’d be worse than Gov. Rick Perry on LGBT and other social issues.
Not only does Abbott adamantly oppose same-sex marriage, but he doesn’t think gay couples who’ve entered into legally recognized relationships in other states should be allowed to dissolve them in Texas. And he doesn’t think the same-sex domestic partners of government employees should be eligible for health benefits. His office has also been sued for alleged anti-gay employment discrimination.
Abbott intervened to stop a gay couple from dissolving a Vermont civil union in 2003. He would later intervene in an attempt to block two same-sex couples from obtaining divorces from their Massachusetts marriages. The divorce cases are still pending before the Texas Supreme Court.
“Marriage is not man-made law,” Abbott said, referring to the gay divorce cases in 2010 as he accepted the “Texas Guardian of the Family Award” from Vision America. “It’s man’s decision to adopt God’s law. Man cannot redefine God’s law, and yet they still try.”
Last year, Abbott issued an opinion saying he believes domestic partner benefits offered by local government entities violate the state’s 2005 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. It’s an amendment Abbott has been criticized for allowing to pass because as worded it appears to outlaw heterosexual marriages, too. “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage,” the amendment reads.
Also last year, Abbott signed a brief calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act.
Of course, the high court went in the opposite direction, and polls show the majority of Americans agree with their decision. Which could help explain why there was no mention of same-sex marriage in Abbott’s announcement speech on Sunday — even as he touched on other Republican primary red meat wedge issues like God, guns and abortion.