Burnt Orange Report

Daily Texan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: No on 2

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

More in the string of this week's major papers to come out against the Texas Marriage Amendment.

Texan: According to a call to action on its Web site, the Free Market Foundation - which claims to be guided by principles that call for both "limited government" and government enforcement of "Judeo-Christian values" - believes amending the Texas constitution is necessary. The site claims that, "The only way to take this issue out of the hands of the judges and into the hands of the people is a constitutional amendment."

Except, in Texas, we elect our judges.

So even if a case challenging Texas' current anti-gay marriage law is brought to court, it will be heard by a judge who has just as much democratic legitimacy as, say, a bunch of legislators who want a moral victory after failing miserably to fix the state's school finance system.

Star-Telegram: Skeptics might be justified in calling this the "Gov. Rick Perry Re-Election Amendment," given the highly publicized bill-signing ceremony that Perry's people put together on June 5 at a Fort Worth church school so the governor could demonstrate his commitment to the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. Constitutional amendments do not require the governor's signature.

Proponents of this initiative attempt to justify their support by wrapping it in terms that evoke motherhood and Old Glory. However, all the lullabies and red-white-and-blue bunting in the world won't mask what Proposition 2 would achieve if voters are deluded enough to approve it: state-sanctioned discrimination.

Unless anyone has seen otherwise, I think that makes every single major and even minor newspaper in the state coming out against Proposition 2, of those that hace issued a stance so far.