(San Antonio, TX) — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis wants Texas to end its defense of the ban on gay marriage. She tells the “San Antonio Express-News” people should be allowed to marry regardless of their sexual orientation.
The Fort Worth state senator also wants her likely opponent in the November general election, Republican State Attorney General Greg Abbott, to stop defending Texas’ 2005 ban on gay marriage.
Davis adds she’d ask the Texas Legislature to repeal the ban “if it doesn’t happen constitutionally.”
As of 1997, the Texas Family Code Title 1, Section 2.001 has included phrasing specific to same-sex couples. The single sentence allows for little interpretation.
“A [marriage] license may not be issued for the marriage elf persons of the same sex,” it reads.
Section 32 of the Constitution underline the code with its 2005 addition to Article 1, the Texas Bill of Rights. It also says the state of Texas cannot create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.
Davis’s opposition follows a year of debate surrounding gay marriage rights in the United States, including the overturn of the Defense of Marriage Act June 26, 2013.
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