Texas ban on gay marriage ruled ‘unconstitutional’
By Josh Haggis
A US federal judge has ruled that Texas’s ban on same-sex marriage is “unconstitutional”.
However, Judge Orlando Garcia’s decision is still pending an appeal by state officials, so marriage law in Texas will remain the same for now.
The case is likely to be taken all the way to the US Supreme Court, the Associated Press reports.
Judge Orlando Garcia’s ruling came in a case whose plaintiffs were two couples: the first, a lesbian couple who have a child together; the second, two gay men in a long-term relationship who are seeking the right to wed.
“Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our United States Constitution,” Judge Garcia wrote in his judgement.
“These Texas laws deny plaintiffs access to the institution of marriage and its numerous rights, privileges, and responsibilities for the sole reason that Plaintiffs wish to be married to a person of the same sex.”
Two weeks ago a US federal judge overturned the same-sex marriage ban in another state, Virginia. Meanwhile, according to a survey released today (February 26), support for same-sex marriage in the US has increased by 21 percent in the past ten years, with the majority of Americans now in favour of it.