A newly elected Democratic judge issued the decision in the latest turn of a 2013 legal challenge to Houston’s policy extending benefits to municipal employees’ same-sex spouses. By Emma Platoff, The Texas Tribune A Houston judge has thrown out the six-year-old lawsuit a pair of Houston taxpayers filed to keep the city from paying spousal…
Texas Conservatives Are Still Fighting Marriage Equality
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. On Wednesday, March 1, the Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments over a lawsuit that not only targets the rights of married gay couples in the state but also seeks to blunt the impact of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted marriage equality nationwide in the…
Activists Denounce Lawsuit that Seeks to Block Benefits to Married Same-Sex Couples in Texas
Texas LGBT activists have filed amicus briefs in a case pending before the Texas Supreme Court (Pidgeon v. Harris) where the City of Houston’s ability to provide spousal benefits to married same-sex couples is being challenged. The case, brought against the City of Houston by anti-LGBT lobbyists Jonathan Saenz and Jared Woodfill, would specifically block…
Texas Supreme Court to Hear Case Attacking Benefits of Married LGBT Couples
Originally published in the San Antonio Current. On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court changed its mind about hearing a case threatening the rights of married gay couples in the state. The case, brought against the City of Houston by anti-LGBT lobbyists, would specifically block same-sex spouses of government employees from receiving any health benefits (benefits…
Donna Campbell Among State Republicans to Support Anti-LGBT Benefits Lawsuit
State Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) was among 50 Texas Republican lawmakers to sign a “friend of the court” brief that claims the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell decision does not give married same-sex couples in the state the right to spousal benefits or the right to live with each other, among other benefits. Others who…