Thanks to a concerted effort on the part of Texas Democrats, a blatantly anti-LGBT, intentionally defiant, Republican-backed measure to prevent marriage equality was killed on Thursday. Of course, this is Texas we're talking about, and a different iteration of the bill could live to see another day -- but for the moment, LGBT Texans can breathe a little easier, thanks to a handful of lawmakers who decided to go "chubbing."
HB 4105, a bill that set out to preclude a Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality from ever taking effect in Texas, would have banned the use of state and local funds for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and prevented government employees from recognizing the unions. The bill was co-signed by 87 Republican members of the Texas House, and likely would have passed had it been up for debate during the discussion phase.
So, LGBT advocates in the statehouse did their best to prevent it from getting to that stage. According to the Texas Tribune, House Democrats used the some of the 200-plus bills up for discussion to "chub" until HB 4105 missed the midnight deadline for house bills. Lawmakers stalled a vote on the bill by debating other legislation for the maximum 10-minute time limit on each measure, leaving them with no time for the anti-LGBT bill's almost-inevitable move forward.
Unfortunately, HB 4105 author Cecil Bell, Jr. doesn't see the bill's defeat as the end of the road, but rather a surmountable hurdle. "From my perspective, no bill is dead as long as there are are other bills in front. You just have to find something that's germane," Bell told the Texas Tribune. "The session still moves on."
And so too might the chubbing.
Shares