LOL Texans! You banned all marriage, dudes!

Oh man, that is too good.

I think one of the first things that will happen is that health insurance companies won't recognize Texas marriages as sufficient to grant health insurance to spouses. Probably not in Texas because there are too many and there would be too much of a stink, but in states other than Texas.

This is just another excuse to deny coverage. It is money in the bank for health insurance companies so of course they will use it. Even if it only delays things, the delay is money in the bank too. They already have a zillion lawyers on staff, it costs the insurance companies nothing to delay stuff this way.

I think that states other than Texas will be sympathetic to these arguments, because Texas use this in an attempt to not recognize legal marriages performed in other states.

Well, my wife sure won't be happy to hear about this.

That's priceless.

I can't wait for the "But that's not what they meant!" argument.

What? You have a problem with that? ;-)

Well, I suppose this means all marriages are no longer valid...

All those illegitimate Texas children. Deport them to Mexico!

Well, I suppose this means all marriages are no longer valid...

I think only the ones registered since the amendment passed.

And what about those people who have (supposedly) married and then divorced since then. Since the marriages were never legal, they were never divorced. What are the implications for alimony and child support payments (does child support differ depending on whether the parents are married?)?

Can't wait for the this one to hit the supreme court.

Maybe we meant do do that.
Quick, look over there: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/20/utah-senator-shove-throat/
Ha ha, those Utah-ites shore are dumbasses, huh?

http://www.sadtrombone.com/

Now imagine that due to being a minority in a state where you have consistently voted against the bigoted theocrats, your marriage is declared null and void, and you and your spouse face federal tax penalties, loss of health benefits, legal rights, etc.

Through no fault of your own.

Is it really such a laughing matter?

If it was the first step in recognizing marriage as a religious ritual in which the state has no interest provided it's consensual and doesn't harm anybody or anything and distinctly different from a legal contract of domestic partership, then it would be a good move. Unfortunately it's probably not.

Bob, laughing doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

Ah, but the best part.... All of those God fearing Christian types who voted this through to stop all of those homos from doing the nasty under the umbrella of marriage...

Are living in sin.

Just think of all those poor "married" Texans, tricked into extramarital sex. Now they're eternally screwed. Welcome to Hell, Texans! Ha, ha!

Bob, laughing doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

Greg's misplaced schadenfreude makes him seem like a giant asshole. I'll reiterate: if some gay Texan had the shit beat out of him just for being gay and in Texas, would it be appropriate to laugh and call the guy a dumbass for living in Texas? What response would "Sucks to be you." get?

In the 1950s and 1960s when the lynchings and beatings and shootings and church-burnings were going on in the South, was the reaction to laugh at blacks and their supporters for being so stupid as to live under a conservative racist regime, shrug, and say "Sucks to be you?"

Seriously, when Greg flippantly calls out his readership as racists, or frets about that ambulatory mass of Final Net called Norm Coleman or that third-runner-up in the Eva Braun lookalike contest at the Minnesota State Fair called Michele Bachmann, I have to ask why I should give two shits about good government, progress, and justice in his neck of the woods when he and many others are so willing to throw under a bus millions of people fucked over in Texas, people that in all likelihood share the same core values, but by reasons of job, friends, family, or sheer accident are in Texas.

Why is this acceptable? If people outside Texas spent as much time and effort helping those in Texas oust the miserable ignorant hateful and obscenely well-funded and well-organized right-wing psychopaths that run the place as they do giving their countrymen the "Sucks to be you" treatment, maybe we wouldn't see so many stories like this.

Stephanie, I'd hope you could talk a little sense into Greg. I'm tired of expecting any humanity or compassion or action out of the complacent northern secular community. If this was the first cheap laugh and overgeneralization at others' expense Greg's posted, I wouldn't have wasted the time writing this. But this bullshit has been going on for a while. And really, it's got to stop.

Bob, you should absolutely be giving the people of Michel Bachmann's district a hard time. They voted her in place, they re-elected her once, and the dumbasses will probably re-elect them again. Same for those who voted for Coleman.

Your assertions regarding gay bashing and lynching are absurd and anyone who reads this blog understands that, and understand that you have some sort of bug up your ass that you are probably not telling us about.

Why is this acceptable? If people outside Texas spent as much time and effort helping those in Texas oust the miserable ignorant hateful and obscenely well-funded and well-organized right-wing psychopaths that run the place as they do giving their countrymen the "Sucks to be you" treatment, maybe we wouldn't see so many stories like this.

You mean like keeping up the discussion at ALL levels, being members of and contributing to organizations like the NCSE and the ACLU which are continuously spending valuable resources on saving Texas from itself, highlighting and contributing to progressive candidates in Texas, and so on and so forth? Shall we stop doing that because you are in a snit?

I wouldn't have wasted the time writing this. But this bullshit has been going on for a while. And really, it's got to stop.

OK, whatever you say, I'll stop. I mean, after all, I'm not doing it like bob wants me to do it, I just needed him to come by and tell me.

Happy now?

(Oh, and no, you don't actually command my voice or determine my point of view.)