As the Supreme Court hears arguments on all sides of the gay marriage debate, Texas politicians continue to spout their usual rambling talking points.
Rick Perry — Proponents of gay marriage “want to silence the religious in the name of tolerance. Where is the tolerance in that? Somewhere along the way we lost our way, not to mention our common sense.”
Ted Cruz — “The Constitution leaves it to the states to decide upon marriage and I hope the Supreme Court respects centuries of tradition and doesn’t step into the process of setting aside state laws that make the definition of marriage.”
Greg Abbott — “Texas has stood firm on this issue because we don’t care how they define marriage on the East Coast or West Coast, because in Texas, marriage remains a union between one man and one woman.”
The problem, Mr. Abbott, is that that’s not entirely true. Many people in this state do care how they define marriage on the East Coast or West Coast. (And where does his comment leave the fine folks of Iowa?) Burnt Orange Report yesterday reminded us of a 2011 Atlantic piece that found that San Antonio, DFW, and Houston have three of the highest percentages of gay couples raising children under the age of 18. Not East Coast or West Coast cities, Texas cities.
San Antonio-New Braunfels had the highest percentage in the country (33.9 percent), Houston-Sugar Land- Baytown had the seventh-highest (27.2 percent), and Dallas- Fort Worth-Arlington had the twelfth-highest (24.9 percent). Forty-five percent of heterosexual couples are raising children nationwide, the Census Bureau reports.
Before any politician decries gay marriage from a family-values standpoint, they should take a look at the gay families that already exist in the cities they represent.
