Know a Texas Lawyer? They’ll want to read this
Are you a lawyer? Do you know a lawyer? We need your help TODAY!
The Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas (SBOT), the governing body for all Texas Lawyers is in the process of recommending/supporting proposed legislation for the 2019 Texas Legislative Session. There are two LGBT legislative proposals that will radically change the Texas Family Code and they have already received initial “approval.” These proposals would remove most, if not all, references to “father” and “mother,” “husband” and “wife,” and “man” and “woman” from Texas law, plus much more. This is outrageous!
The SBOT recommending this legislation also violates its own procedural rules that prohibit support for legislation which has the potential for “division” and is evidence of an “ideological” position. Texas Values President, Jonathan Saenz, testified about and against these LGBT recommendations on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 before the SBOT Legislative Subcommittee. He was the only person there to testify.
We need your help. The committee said they will allow some time for Texas Bar members to weigh in. That time is now! Please share this with other Texas lawyers ASAP.
Please see the included links, supporting documents and a sample email to send to the SBOT Legislative Committee and Board members. Please send your email today to: [email protected]. Here is the email for the SBOT President [email protected].
Sample Email:
“I am a member of the State Bar of Texas. I encourage you to not move forward with recommending Tab 16 and Tab 17 (LGBT legislative proposals) for endorsement by the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors as legislative proposals for the 2019 Texas Legislative Session. Tab 16 and Tab 17 violate the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors Policy Manual rules (Part VII, 8.01.03 (C) and (G)) that forbid support for proposed legislation that carries “potential of deep philosophical or emotional division” among bar members and forbids support for legislation that can be “construed to advocate political or ideological positions.”
As a member of the State Bar of Texas, I ask you to please honor our bar rules and withdraw your recommendation for Tab 16 and Tab 17 (LGBT legislative proposals) for the 2019 Texas Legislative session.”
The LGBT legislative proposals are linked here and here. These LGBT proposals do far more than address this issue of same-sex marriage. These proposals are similar to HB 1663 and SB 251 which were heavily opposed in the 2017 Texas Legislative Session and never came close to gaining passage. SBOT members were told this legislation just puts our state in compliance with the SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage. These bills go way beyond that. A detailed analysis of these proposals can be found attached. Here are some “highlights” of the proposed bills:
… enables an unmarried woman to be legally presumed the second “mother” of a child by merely living in the child’s household for the child’s first two years and claiming to be the child’s parent.11 This unmarried woman would be able to circumvent the adoption law and obtain a parent’s rights over the child even though she had no genetic relationship with the child and had not proven her parental fitness to an adoption court,
… includes a genderless (or trans-sexual) amendment that stipulates an “individual”, instead of a woman, gives birth to a child, and creates a genderless “parent-child relationship” instead of a mother-child relationship,13
… expands the definition of parents beyond “father” and “mother” to include a new genderless category called “parent”,14 which apparently is intended to cover a lesbian who lives with the mother,
… replaces the terms “husband” and “wife” with “male spouse” and “female spouse” 15 perhaps to minimize the distinctive and valuable characteristics that a husband and wife bring to rearing their children, which same-sex couples lack, and to imply that spouses are fungible,
… renders a mother genderless, perhaps to promote trans-sexuality, by providing that an “individual”, instead of a woman, gives birth to a child, and that a “parent-child” relationship, instead of a mother-child relationship, results,
… removes schools’ duty to educate young Texans on the risks of homosexual conduct and lifestyle