I ran across this story earlier in the week, and I'd planned to write about it, but I didn't find the time until tonight. I think it's worth sharing, even if it's not new. A positive item to begin 2015.
The story comes out of Austin, Texas, where Freedom to Marry held a marriage equality town hall at the LBJ Presidential Library a few weeks ago. There, they were joined by plaintiffs from Texas who are responsible for overturning the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Of course, that ruling was stayed, then appealed, and is headed this month to the conservative Fifth Circuit, where its fate is anything but certain as we just might have a judicial swing vote that may give us an unexpected pro-equality ruling. We'll see, but as of today, the status quo stands in Texas, where 16-year-old Mason Marriott-Voss' two moms are not legally married and where the boy's family is not recognized in the eyes of the state. As other states have fallen like dominoes, Greg Abbott's Texas remains in the twentieth century on this issue and others. Mason delivered an impassioned speech to the town hall that stole the show and concluded: "It's not our families that need to change, it's Texas."
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Watching the video, it's easy to believe that Mason is active with his school's debate team. And he's funny, too. His mothers must be very proud:
If you can't watch the video now, I've transcripted it for your convenience. Mason starts by laying out the problem, that his mothers and other same-sex couples can't marry in Texas because of the backward, regressive views that resulted in the amendment and are now defending it in court:
When my moms had me 16 years ago here in Austin, gay marriage wasn't a possibility anywhere in the United States. So lots has changed since then. But, unfortunately, not here in Texas. There are still people who stubbornly refuse to recognize family, even when it's right in front of them. Some people are still genuinely concerned that my parents' love could harm tradition or erode society, maybe even threaten existing marriages.
He then goes on to summarize said "ominous threat":
Let me just sum up this ominous threat real quick. My stepsister, a straight-A student at a prestigious magnet middle school who is interested in subversive things like The Hunger Games, Gossip Girl, and fashion. My brother, a fun-loving parkour ninja that's wearing a Yoda Santa hat every day through December in the hopes that that will bring a white Christmas here to Austin. And me, a sophomore at LASA, where I'm not a shabby contributor to our debate team, and where I met my girlfriend that I still adore over a year later. And my parents, who are too busy helping us with finals to be eroding society right now. We're basically a pretty ordinary family. Nothing to be afraid of, at least. We share the same values and beliefs as everyone else, the same normal struggles and triumphs.
Then, he gets to the point:
Except that we are denied the basic dignity of being officially respected as the family we are. These anti-family laws create a raw deal for kids like me. Marriage is supposed to be a very important issue, but these laws cause children to be raised across the country in homes without it. The most important thing I want you to take away from me today is that it's not our families that need to change, it's Texas.
Indeed. And it will change, on this issue for sure, and probably sooner rather than later (but I'm optimistic). In the meantime, bravo to Mason for speaking up for his moms. Onward to the Fifth Circuit.
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