Today, Texas is the only state that will vote on a state constitutional amendment, Proposition 2 (Prop 2), that will ban same-sex marriage. In 2004, thirteen state constitutional bans on same-sex marriage passed overwhelmingly everywhere they were on the ballot.
It is assumed Prop 2 would pass easily in the Lone Star State since it is an off year in the national election, cycle. However, Prop 2 is facing an energized, hopeful and somewhat unusual opposition.
Texas law – added to the State Statue when Dudya was Governor – already restricts marriage to unions of one man and one woman.
Family Code Chapter 2 §2.001(b) A license may not be issued for the marriage of persons of the same sex.
The homophobic amendment would enshrine the policy in the state constitution and prohibit any part of the state government from recognizing any legal status “identical or similar to marriage” for same-sex couples.
Taking a page out of the Rovian playbook on electoral politics during the 2004 Presidential election. Gov. Rick Perry is using this issue as a way to rebuild his political base. Perry aides hope their “values voters” will once again get involved in politics to save Perry from his poor performance in his first term as Texas Governor.
The fight over Prop 2 has been heated up over the last two months, marred with accusations that amendment supporters are campaigning illegally, allegations that opponents plan to register fraudulent voters, an anti-gay KKK rally supporting Gov Perry and Prop 2 supporters, and conservative dirty tricks to get this amendment on the ballot and passed today.
Gov Rick Perry’s Political Stunt
To shore up his chances for reelection, Perry is following a model perfected by his mentor, Dudya: fire up the Religious Right.
On June 5, in a well-orchestrated piece of political theater cleverly designed to placate Religious Right forces, Rev. Rod Parsley and a phalanx of other Religious Right leaders, converged on a Pentecostal church school in Fort Worth. They happened to be there to join Perry for a bill-signing ceremony. There were two bills that required Perry’s signature; one bill requiring girls under the age of 18 to acquire parental consent before obtaining an abortion and another bill certifying the current ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage next year.
The location was also curious. The festivities was held in a gymnasium of a private school affiliated with Calvary Cathedral International, a mega-church founded by the Rev. Bob Nichols.
The whole bill signing event was nothing more than a Religious Right/GOP political rally. Speakers included Tony Perkins, president of the Washington- based Family Research Council, the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association and Dr. Laurence White, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Houston.
The staff of the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), an Austin- based group that monitors Religious Right activity statewide, has been watching developments with considerable alarm.
TFN says all indications are that conservative clergy are trying to create a church-based political machine, Texas Restoration Project, in the Lone Star State. Just so happens to be Texas Restoration Project the group very similar to Ohio’s Rev. Russell Johnson’s organization, Ohio Restoration Project, that Parsley worked in and, Parsley’s new founded a group, Reformation Ohio. According to Gay People’s Chronicle:
Parley’s activities are allied with Rev. Johnson’s Ohio Restoration Project to recruit ‘Patriot Pastors’ to motivate their congregations to vote for issues and candidates to their liking.
TFN’s Ryan Valentine said so far the Texas Restoration Project remains a shadowy group. Valentine noted that meals and accommodations at the pastors’ event were provided for attendees but TFN has been unable to find out who paid the bill. The Texas Restoration Project, he said, has not filed papers with the state and has no Web site.
Texas Restoration Project’s spokesman is David Lane, past chairman to a group similar to Ohio and Texas, California Restoration Project, is also a long-time conservative and Republican Party operative. In 1991, Lane, who is white, pulled together a front group of African Americans to support the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Six years later, he helped Jerry Falwell launch one of his groups, the National Committee for the Restoration of the Judeo-Christian Ethic.
In 1998, Lane worked with far-right millionaire activist Edward Atsinger III to put on briefings for pastors in California. More recently, he serves as executive director of Texas pastor Rick Scarborough’s Vision America. However, web site is no longer lists the group’s administrative list, a screen caption of the Vision America’s excutive board can be found here.
Currently in Ohio, an all out church-organizing project led by Parsley, is being used as a vehicle to put Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, former state co-chair for the Bush campaign, in front of religious conservative voters as he prepares to run for governor in 2006. Just like it’s Ohio’s counter-part the Texas spin-off is an effort to boost Perry’s reelection chances.
The fact this is nothing but a political stunt against the Gay and Lesbian community is evidence Perry is under fire for his lackluster legislative session this year and is also worried about his ability to win reelection in 2006. Perry is currently dealing with intra-party challenger Texas Comptroller Carole “One Tough Grandma” Keeton Strayhorn, a feisty populist who has derided Perry as a “do-nothin’ drugstore cowboy.”
