About 14 months ago, I wrote a letter to Ted Cruz trying to understand how my marriage to my same-sex partner of eight years had any impact on him at all. His office responded in October, 2014 with a annoying but relatively benign form letter. Since then Senator Cruz has made noise on and off about changing laws to invalidate the force and effect of marriages should the married parties reside in a state where same-sex marriage is illegal. That got my attention since my partner and I were married in California but live in Texas. Nothing came of that yet, but today he reintroduced his anti-marriage amendment and additional legislation to enjoin federal courts from considering marriage cases. I guess the time has come to write him again. My second tilt at windmills is below the fold
Dear Senator Cruz:
I see from news reports from that you are once again targeting my husband and me as well as every other LBGT couple who is either already married or wants to get married. Apparently you have re-filed your Marriage Amendment that failed to advance in the last Congress. What is more insidious is the second piece of legislation you have introduced which would enjoin federal courts from considering petitioners seeking legal status for same-sex marriage until your amendment is adopted. In other words, you would like to legislate the Federal Court system out of the practice of considering whether anti-same-sex marriage laws are a violation of any number of provisions of the U.S. Constitution. I’m not certain, but that feels like a rather shocking violation of the separation of powers.
Your decision to reintroduce your anti-Marriage Amendment and your anti-Judicial Review Amendment reminded me that 14 months ago on February 26, 2014 I asked you two simple questions (via email and via an open letter posted at Dailykos). To recap, those questions were: how does my marriage hurt you and how does it hurt Texas? I was relatively sure I wouldn’t receive a reply. Indeed, when my brother commented on the letter I wrote he said I shouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a reply. As court rulings proceeded and it appeared marriage equality was rapidly spreading, I decided you would drop the matter, and I’d never hear anything. Eight months later, on October 23, 2014, some staff member in your office proved me wrong. I received a lovely form email that began with the following two sentences:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding marriage laws. Input from my fellow Texans significantly informs my decision-making and helps me better represent your interests.
Leaving aside the fact that my input is diametrically opposed to your stated position on same-sex marriage and therefore you can’t possibly “represent my interests,” your form letter simply rehashed why you oppose marriage equality but failed to answer my questions. You have not, despite all of your public posturing on this issue, ever explained how my marriage negatively impacts either yourself or the state of Texas. I suspect that this is because you cannot point to a single way in which my marriage has affected anyone other than my immediate family, my partner, and his children.
I’m pretty sure that any marriage is much the same; the reach is only as far as the friends and families of the two people getting married. I hesitate to assign motive, but it seems to me that the concept of two people of the same gender modeling love and committing to a lifetime of partnership and support is simply abhorrent to you. To me that is a textbook example of bigotry. You simply do not like the concept and therefore use your position of authority to denigrate same-sex couples at every turn. To enshrine that bigotry into law and prevent any sort of judicial review is plainly discrimination. I could only conclude that your actions are driven by fear, disgust and perhaps even hatred.
Imagine my surprise then when I read in the New York Times yesterday that you had attended a reception at: “the Manhattan apartment of two prominent gay hoteliers.” The Times article goes on to say:
During the gathering, according to two people present, Mr. Cruz said he would not love his daughters any differently if one of them was gay. He did not mention his opposition to same-sex marriage, saying only that marriage is an issue that should be left to the states.
WOW! If indeed you said this, I stand corrected. If you could love your daughters just the same if one of them was gay, then perhaps you aren’t driven by hatred. Unfortunately, this article simply shows that you are a hypocrite. You will happily denigrate same-sex couples on the campaign trail in an attempt to stir fear and discord while trying desperately to stay relevant in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination, but when the need to woo potential high dollar donors who are also gay arises, you can change your tone in a heartbeat.
I am certain I will get another form letter reply to this email, so let me just close by saying, please don’t ever claim to represent my interests, and think hard about whether you really represent the interests of Texas. In my view your actions in the last week have demonstrated that you are only concerned about yourself and your Presidential ambitions.
As before I will be posting this as a diary on dailykos.com
Sincerely,
William H. Crane
Houston, TX