Pioneering local couples say they never thought they’d see the day when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage
PAVING THE WAY | Louise Young and Vivienne Armstrong have been together 42 years and were married in California. Jack Evans and George Harris have been together 52 years and hope to marry in Texas.
Longtime Dallas couples rejoiced with the nation this week when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and returned the Proposition 8 case to the district court.
Longtime activist Jack Evans said he and his partner of 52 years, George Harris, never thought they’d see the day when the court ruled in favor of marriage equality.
“We have been waiting a long, long time and I never did envision this in my lifetime,” Evan said. “I knew it’d happen eventually, but in my lifetime I had never thought that this was going to be possible. I never did think we would see DOMA removed and Proposition 8 dismissed.”
Evans remained hopeful during the months leading up to the decision, but said they were still a surprise because of the many ways in which the court could rule. But the waiting paid off, he said, because the rulings were a win that will only push the rest of the country forward.
“This was an out and out victory,” he said. “There were no conditions to either of the issues.”
The court didn’t rule on the merits in the Prop 8 case, instead deciding that the measure’s backers lacked standing and creating a pathway for marriages to resume in California.
Pioneering Dallas lesbian activist Louise Young married her partner of 42 years in California in 2008 — before Prop 8 passed. She said marrying her partner was “a historic milestone in our lives” and she was pleased that the state would once again have marriage.
“To leave the Justice of the Peace office in California with a stamped, sealed legal document was nothing we ever envisioned when we met,” Young said.
She called the Day of Decision “a day beyond our wildest imagination” that would only lead to more rights for LGBT Americans. She recalled a Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance retreat in 1977 where a group of activists shared their visions and goals for progress. Back then, marriage wasn’t even uttered, she said.
“A wave of optimism has washed over me about how quickly we will gain our rights,” she said.
But for Mark “Major” Jiminez, the wait for equality won’t end soon enough. Jiminez and husband Beau Chandler had a wedding last fall after being arrested in July for criminal trespassing because they refused to leave the County Records Building without a marriage license. Chandler later received deferred adjudication and community service for the Class-B misdemeanor, but Jiminez, who was arrested again for the same charge in August, had his cases postponed again this week.
“We’re thrilled that the Supreme Court ruled in favor for both cases, but we know that here in Texas we still can’t legally get married,” Jiminez said. “And that is going to continue to be our fight. We’re not going to go chasing for a marriage license in other states. …We’re going to continue to demand our rights in Texas.”
Jiminez said they were surprised the court didn’t rule in the Prop 8 case and issue a wide ruling that would have found all state marriage amendments unconstitutional.
“We’re both just dumbfounded that there wasn’t a sweeping motion that made it equal for everybody in all 50 states,” he said. “This is ridiculous that in some states you can be equal and in other states you cannot. That is not a United States at all.”
Young suggested that Jiminez and Chandler should file a lawsuit based on the DOMA case — which didn’t challenge Section 2 that deals with state recognition — to have the Texas anti-gay marriage law declared discriminatory and unconstitutional since they were denied a license in the state.
But the couple is focused on changing Texas for now, encouraging others to be visible, contact their state representatives and even brainstorming for a march on Austin for marriage equality.
“We know that we have a fight but we’re still very thrilled [about the rulings],” Jiminez said. “We see this as a victory and it’s putting us one step closer to the direction that we need to be, but we obviously still have a fight on our hands here in Dallas and in Texas.”
For Evans and Harris, who haven’t been married in any marriage-equality state, they’re still waiting to legally wed in Texas, a reality they hope to see in their lifetime because of the progress of the historic rulings.
“[The rulings] will invigorate the movement in education and discrimination of any kind and put us on an equal standing of our straight peers,” Evans said. “This will open up acceptability in families and in business and all relationships. This just eliminates hate and any reason for hate.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 28, 2013.
