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Gay marriage ban added to constitution
Texans voted Tuesday to make same-sex marriages and civil unions unconstitutional.
The highly contested and controversial constitutional amendment defining a marriage in Texas as a union solely between one man and one woman passed by 76 percent, as of press time Tuesday.
Previously, gay marriages were outlawed in Texas, but the law granted judges discretion to allow civil unions.
"The passage of this amendment reaffirms the will of the mainstream Texans and protects the sanctity of marriage from activist judges who might seek to redefine it," said state Sen. Todd Staples in a statement.
Staples, R-Palestine, sponsored the bill authored by state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa.
Chisum said he was thrilled but not surprised that the proposition passed.
"We've always been a conservative state that values family, and this just proves it in spades," Chisum said. "You put the proper issue out there, and people will show up [to vote]."
Every state except for Massachusetts outlaws gay marriage. Texas became the 18th state to write a same-sex marriage ban into its constitution Tuesday.
No Nonsense in November, an organization against Prop. 2 that has been active since the summer, centered its campaign on the premise that the proposition's wording was poorly drafted and discriminatory.
Glen Maxey, Austin resident and director of No Nonsense in November, was not reactionary to the result of the election. He said he was pleased with everyone's efforts and pleased with the number of people who went to the polls. That in itself, he said, was an accomplishment.
"The proposition is a drafting nightmare," Maxey said. "The issue is broader than civil unions. It is that anyone's union, homosexual or heterosexual, would not be recognized anymore."
The language of the amendment provides that Texas "could not create or recognize any legal status identical to or similar to marriage, including such legal status relationships created outside of Texas." Save Texas Marriage, a group opposing Prop. 2, used phone-bank systems, calling retirement homes and older married couples, to tell them their marriage would be annulled if the proposition passed.
Chisum and Staples released a statement last month defending the proposition's text, stating it does not endanger traditional marriage.
"We worked directly with the Texas Legislative Council attorneys who drafted the language as well as the attorney general's officer to ensure there were no unintended consequences," the statement said. "It has passed the test of legal scholars. These allegation and panic schemes are designed to move away from the true issue of this proposition."
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, said in the same statement that the claims by Save Texas Marriage that Prop. 2 would invalidate traditional marriages were "completely baseless."
No Nonsense in November was founded to address Prop. 2, and as of today is no longer an active organization, Maxey said.
"The Bill of Rights is the place you look to for the protection of the people in Texas," Maxey said. "It is not discriminatory, and for the first time in history, there will be a discrimination clause placed in the Bill of Rights."
After the amendment takes effect in September 2006, another constitutional referendum will be necessary to overturn it.
Student groups resilient after election defeat By Kimberly Garza Daily Texan Staff
At the Gregory Gymnasium Plaza late Tuesday evening, Karl-Thomas Musselman, a government and urban studies junior, paused to regain his composure as he read the results from the 2005 election.
"I think that it hasn't sunk in yet," he said of the passing of Proposition 2, which defines marriage as a union solely between a man and a woman. "I'm going to have to live, as long as I live here in Texas, knowing that this amendment is sitting on my Constitution. I'm going to have a hard time dealing with this as the night goes on."
Click below to listen to student reactions from the election party at Gregory Gym
Musselman, a member of the steering committee for the Campus Alliance Against Inequality, was one of the roughly 50 students gathered in front of the gym for a late-night election party.
Hosted by Campus Alliance, the party was intended to be a place for anti-Proposition 2 voters to gather as election numbers rolled in.
Throughout the evening, students stopped by a single laptop set up on the plaza, watching as results were tallied.
Musselman, who recorded the Travis County numbers as they were updated, said the defeat was a tough one for him.
"I've lived this campaign as two people: one, as a political activist who is fighting an issue that is just wrong. The other part, fighting as a gay person who realizes that this directly affects me," he said. "It sucks a lot tonight. I think everybody's just really sick about this."
Brian Hartman, a public affairs graduate student who attended the event, said the result wasn't surprising."It's disappointing, but I kind of expected it," he said with a shrug. "I tried to believe [that the proposition could be rejected] but I don't think you can deny reality."
Jennifer Lee, a journalism graduate student, also attended the event to oppose Prop. 2. She said because of the already-existing Texas law preventing gay marriages, the passing of the proposition was expected.
Reactions from across the plaza were varied. Some attendees huddled in small groups, talking quietly, while others refused to let the defeat dim their moods. Members of the Campus Alliance steering committee, bearing T-shirts that spelled out "VOTE NO ON 2!" gathered to take a group photo, joking and laughing as they posed before a banner with the words "Just the Beginning." Brian Dunn, a mechanical engineering freshman, said there were two ways to look at the election numbers.
"It's somewhat discouraging just because the numbers in the state are so extreme [favoring Proposition 2]," he said. "But you've also got to look at the numbers here on campus and around this area, and they're completely opposite from the state's. It really shows how effective this campaign was, at least on a small scale."
Lizzie Dupont, a committee member for Campus Alliance, said the group was already brainstorming about reaction events to the passed proposition.
"We're discussing it," said Dupont, a biology sophomore. "We know we want to get together and do something because we brought so many groups on campus together about this. We're still working on it."
Musselman said though the proposition passed, he has no regrets about the campaign's efforts at the University.
"I look back now, and there is not anything else I think we could have done on campus. Seeing the numbers, the validity in the numbers of students is very real," he said. "Those are the dozen precincts that signal to me that as awful as this feels, that's where the hope is.
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