News of Note: Gay Texas judge won’t marry straight couples
Tonya Parker, an African-American lesbian judge in Texas, refuses to marry straight couples until everyone in the state has the right to marry.
Turning away would-be newlyweds is “my opportunity to give them a lesson about marriage inequality in this state,” Parker told a meeting of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas earlier this week.
She said it’s “oxymoronic” for her to perform a ceremony that can’t be performed for her.
Instead, she refers couples to other judges in the courthouse with an explanation along the lines of “I’m sorry. I don’t perform marriage ceremonies because we are in a state that does not have marriage equality, and until it does, I am not going to partially apply the law to one group of people that doesn’t apply to another group of people,” she told the meeting.
I’m very impressed to see a Judge using her authority to raise awareness about marriage equality. There is nothing discriminatory about what Judge Tonya Parker is doing, since she isn’t marrying anyone and she doesn’t have to. Tonya’s stance should serve as an example for us all. This type of integrity and moral leveraging is not common enough today.