A federal judge has ruled Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
Judge Orlando Garcia, who is based in San Antonio, has stated that the law denies same-sex couple the right to marry, and therefore will, “demean their dignity for no legitimate reason,” and has stated that the law has no, “rational relation to a legitimate government purpose.”
According to CNN, two same-sex couples filed the original lawsuit, Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman of Austin, and Mark Phariss and Victor Holmes of Plano. De Leon and Dimetman, who have a child together, want their Massachusetts marriage to be recognized, while Phariss and Holmes want to get married in Texas.
"Supreme Court precedent prohibits states from passing legislation born out of animosity against homosexuals, has extended constitutional protection to the moral and sexual choices of homosexuals, and prohibits the federal government from treating state-sanctioned opposite-sex marriages and same-sex marriages differently," Garcia said.
According to Think Progress, Garcia has become the seventh federal judge to rule against a federal ban on same-sex marriage after the Supreme Court dismissed the Defense of Marriage, also known as DOMA, last year.