Yes folks, as Battleground Texas continues its push to turn Texas blue, opinions on LGBT equality in the Lone Star State continue to evolve. Equality Texas, the major statewide LGBT advocacy organization, has conducted polling that reveals some encouraging data:
65.7% of all Texas voters support extending partnership benefits to government and public university employees.
90.9% of all Texas voters support a guaranteed right of lesbians and gays to visit their partner in a hospital.
80.0% of all Texas voters support a guaranteed right of lesbians and gays to make end of life decisions for their partner.
68.8% of all Texas voters support gays/lesbians having the same legal rights with respect to their children.
70.2% of all Texas voters support legal rights of gay/lesbian partners to inherit possessions if there is no will in place.
64.7% of all Texas voters support allowing gay and lesbian couples to get a civil union.
That's all very encouraging,
but there's more:
52.0% of Texas voters now support recognizing the marriages of same-gender couples from states that currently allow marriage; an increase in support of 3.6%.
And perhaps most notably, we now see a (very small) plurality of Texas voters supporting full marriage equality:
The largest increase in support came among Texas voters who now support allowing lesbians and gays to get married. By a margin of 47.9% to 47.5%, a very minor plurality, Texas voters now support the freedom to marry. This percentage represents an increase of 5.2% in support since September, 2010. Support for the freedom to marry increased by 11.3% among Independents, increased by 15.7% among African Americans, increased by 14.3% among 18-29 year olds, and increased by 11.1% among those over age 65.
The margin is razor-thin, but the finding is significant in a state stereotyped for its conservative attitudes. And now that states such as neighboring New Mexico and
Utah are enjoying marriage equality--not to mention the
related lawsuits moving down the pipeline--a Texas that recognizes the right of all couples to marry is not such a distant vision anymore. Indeed, marriage equality in Texas no longer seems farfetched at all.
Helping to harness the nationwide and statewide momentum for full LGBT equality is Equality Texas, which has partnered with the national Freedom to Marry to launch a brand-new marriage equality campaign: Why Marriage Matters - Texas. From the new site:
While significant cultural, legal and governmental advances have led to greater equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Texans, LGBT Texans and their families remain highly vulnerable, without the vast majority of rights and protections that most Texans take for granted.
Through our education, organizing and advocacy programs, we work toward creating a broadly diverse alliance of people in government, communities of faith, labor, all sectors of the workforce and other social justice movements to achieve equality for LGBT Texans and the broader goals of social, racial and economic justice.
The new campaign is modeled after the national
Why Marriage Matters project, which focuses on videos of personal stories to humanize and raise the visibility of gay and lesbian couples. A typical video:
Equality Texas field organizer Daniel Williams has this to say about the new project:
For the first time in a long time, marriage in Texas is moveable.The public opinion is shifting our way. This is something we can actually dedicate resources to and have a realistic expectation of having results. We’re gearing up to work in a concrete way to bring the freedom to marry to Texas.
[...]
If we’re going to be able to push the changes in public opinion beyond demographic shifts, we’re going to have to go and talk to people about why our marriages matter, in the language of emotion and the language of human relationships. You can spit statistics to people all day long, but what changes people’s hearts and minds are personal stories of people affected by the issues.
Absolutely. Those of us who are LGBT understand the power of non-LGBT people knowing and being able to relate to us and our issues. Here in Texas, where the scales of public opinion when it comes to marriage equality are just beginning to shift, this kind of a campaign is more important than ever.
More from Lone Star Q:
Williams said Equality Texas has become effective over the years at killing anti-LGBT legislation, but in the 2013 legislative session, the organization proved it can also move pro-equality legislation forward, with three bills clearing committee. On the marriage equality front, previous sessions have typically seen just one bill, from Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, seeking to repeal the state’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. But this year’s session saw multiple bills in both the House and Senate aimed at undoing not only the constitutional ban, but also statutory prohibitions on same-sex marriage. One House bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the event the constitutional amendment is repealed garnered a dozen co-sponsors.
[...]
Williams also refuted the notion that because marriage equality is likely to come to Texas through a federal court ruling, the community shouldn’t bother pursuing legislative remedies. He said every civil rights movement in history has relied on a combination of the the legislature, the courts and public opinion.
[...]
In fact, one of the functions of Why Marriage Matters Texas will be to educate people about pending litigation in Texas, which currently has at least seven active cases related to the state’s marriage bans. They include two same-sex divorce cases that are before the Texas Supreme Court, three cases directly challenging the marriage bans in federal court, and two cases related to whether same-sex partner benefits in Houston.
Amazing things are happening here in Texas--and the momentum is only beginning to build.
To make this new project happen, Equality Texas is trying to raise $5,000 for the first quarter of 2014, certainly a reachable goal. If you feel so moved, you can donate here.