Rep. Lon Burnam
Yes, you read the headline right.
As the Texas Legislature convened today for a second special session — and what is expected to be round 2 of an abortion fight — Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, quietly filed HB 20, a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Texas if the state’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is first repealed.
Burnam announced his plan to file the bill last week in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down a portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
“The Supreme Court found today that the federal government acted to ‘impose a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages.’ I can assure you the Texas Legislature did the same. As such, it is time to renounce our homophobic state laws and usher in marriage equality in Texas,” Burnam said in a statement at the time.
“I call on Governor Perry to add marriage equality to the special session call,” Burnam said. “Clearly granting equal rights to all Texans is more urgent than imposing restrictions on women’s health and liberty based on junk science and sham medical research.
“It is the shame of our state that we continually have to wait for a federal judge to make us do the right thing. It happened with segregated schools, segregated parks and segregated housing. Let’s not let it happen with segregated marriage rights.”
The bill is identical to one Burnam filed during the regular session in February, which never received a committee hearing. HB 20 would remove provisions in the Texas Family Code from 2003 that deny same-sex couples the ability to marry in the state. It would also allow Texas to recognize same-sex marriages and civil unions from other states.
However, the bill could only take effect after Texas’ 2005 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is repealed. Repealing the amendment would require a two-thirds majority of both houses of the Legislature, as well as a majority popular vote.
In other words, the bill doesn’t have a prayer, and same-sex marriage in Texas will most likely have to wait for another Supreme Court decision striking down state marriage bans as unconstitutional.
But it’s a nice gesture on the part of Burnam, and it’s a hopeful reminder that marriage equality will come to Texas. The only question is when.
