- Pete Schulte
With closing arguments under way in the federal Prop 8 trial today, I thought it might be a good time to check in with Pete Schulte, the attorney in Dallas’ own version of Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
After all, it’s been damn near two months since a state appeals court heard oral arguments in Schulte’s gay divorce case, known as J.B. v. H.B. And those of us who’ve signed up for the opinion notification service from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals are getting tired of scanning through the e-mails every morning. But Schulte says it could be a while before the court issues its ruling.
“Once the case is submitted to the court, we have no idea when they’re going to rule,” Schulte told me this afternoon.
“If I had to bet the farm on it, I would probably say maybe the beginning of 2011,” Schulte said. “Get through the elections, get through the holidays. I would not be surprised if it was January. It might be sooner. Who knows.
“There are some opinions that take two years,” he added. “It just depends, and there are no statutory guidelines for it.”
In the meantime, Schulte said he’s focusing on his campaign for the District 108 House seat. Schulte, a Democrat, is taking on Republican incumbent Dan Branch. Schulte said a Libertarian candidate has also entered the race, and he’s hoping this will peel away some of Branch’s conservative supporters.
Schulte, who came out officially and publicly in Dallas Voice a while back, is the only known openly gay candidate for Texas Legislature this year.
I want to be able to vote on straight marriage! Only the gays get to vote. The straights have to stay home and watch volleyball and drink beer or something butch.
Carl, in Texas it is very difficult to get something like this on the ballot. It has to basically be unfinished work in the legislature and then be referred for a vote.
However in states like California, getting something on the ballot is fairly easy. Collecting signatures of 8 percent of the electorate, which is what’s needed for a constitutional amendment, shouldn’t be that difficult. Then they could have it on the ballot to outlaw opposite sex marriage. It probably wouldn’t pass, but it would sure be fun watching them squirm. I cannot imagine why the LGBT community in California has not done this.