Openly LGBT state Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, addresses the crowd on the south steps of the state Capitol on Monday during Equality Texas Lobby Day. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)
AUSTIN — Hundreds of LGBT Texans and allies from across the state told their personal stories of discrimination, love and hope for a better future to lawmakers Monday during Equality Texas Lobby Day.
With more than 540 registered attendants, it marked the biggest Lobby Day ever, Equality Texas Executive Director Chuck Smith said.
Smith started working with the statewide LGBT advocacy organization as a lobbyist in 2003. He shared his experience with the crowd Monday morning, explaining that he came out to former state Rep. Carter Casteel, who had been his eighth-grade history teacher. He told her that he and his partner of 17 years, Rick, had loved each other dearly until his death in 2001.
And he asked her not to vote for the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage between a man and a woman and passed later that year.
Smith said she acknowledged his love between him and his partner but told him she couldn’t vote against DOMA because she would lose her seat.
“The day changed my life because I learned that the people who serve this state are real people just like me,” he said, adding that more legislators need to hear stories to earn their support. “They just need to hear from enough of us to give them the strength to do the right thing for the people of Texas.”
Pansexual state Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, thanked those who attended for standing behind her when she came out during her contested Democratic Primary last year and for encouraging her with their fight for LGBT rights.
“A year ago when I decided to run for office and people would ask me if I was going to be out about my sexuality, I had naively said yes and didn’t realize the kind of backlash it would cause all over the state, all over the country,” she said. “But it was people like y’all standing behind me today, that stood behind me during the campaign, that gave me the courage to stand up and continue to be my authentic self so that we can start to change this place. … This place is changing and it’s changing because of everyone who’s here today and it’s going to continue to change.”
Gonzalez has filed two pro-equality bills. HB 2402 would prohibit harassment and discrimination in public schools against LGBT students and employees, and HB 2403 would remove gender restrictions in the Romeo and Juliet defense for minors who have intimate relationships.
Rob Martinez came to lobby for HB 1701 that would remove language in the Texas Penal Code keeping homosexual conduct a class-C misdemeanor after the statute was found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003’s Lawrence v. Texas.
Martinez has been with his partner for 15 years. They have three children together and 11 grandchildren, so he was also advocating for HB 1696, which would remove negative teachings about homosexuality from public school curriculum. He said both bills would help his grandkids grow up knowing that his relationship is just as meaningful and lawful as relationships between straight couples.
“I would hate to think that they have to go to school and be told that my lifestyle is not only immoral but illegal,” he said.
State Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, who authored both HB 1701 and 1696, welcomed Martinez’s group into her office Monday and listened to their stories. She said the work has started and now she is working with fellow lawmakers to determine the best strategy for both bills’ passage.
Noelle Gaughen told Farrar about her 17-year-old brother, who two years ago was hurt so badly from a rumor that he is gay that he took a semester off of school to escape the torment. She said he hasn’t come out and may not be gay, but she doesn’t want schools teaching that being gay is wrong and being called gay shouldn’t be an insult.
Elsewhere in the Capitol, groups lobbied for employment nondiscrimination, accurate supplementary birth certificates and marriage equality.
With a wedding photo in hand, Darrell Garcia-Parsons told legislators about the happiest day of his life last August when he married his partner, Jason, in New York. He added that it was also a bit sad because they couldn’t have the ceremony surrounded by friends and family in Texas, where the two grew up, because it’s prohibited.
“We shouldn’t have had to go to New York,” he said. “We work hard, pay taxes but we don’t have the same equal rights as everyone. We got married because we love each other but we’d also like to take advantage of all the benefits [that come from marriage]. …We’re fighting for what’s right and what should be a no-brainer.”
More photos from Lobby Day below.
