Texas journalist John Wright reports on his Lone Star Q blog that the Texas Department of Public Safety has refused to allow Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s daughter to take a driver’s test because she has two moms. Mayor Parker, who married her longtime partner earlier this year, tweeted last night about what happened:
Daughter needs drivers test. Has all docs, some in MomA name, some MomK, but w/ birth cert showing both. DPS says can only be from 1 mom!-A
— Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October 24, 2014
The Texas Freedom Network this past weekend presented Parker with our Equal Rights Champion Award for her work to pass the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance last spring. Before and throughout her three terms as Houston’s mayor, religious-right groups have viciously attacked Parker as a “sodomite” seeking a “gay takeover” of the Bayou City. Now Texas authorities are also shamefully and offensively dismissing the mayor’s family as a fiction.
UPDATE: Mayor Parker just tweeted that her daughter was able to get a driver’s license after three trips to the DPS office.
Finally! After 3rd trip to DPS w/ different sets of docs in an unnecessary paper chase, last child has her drivers license.-A
— Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October 24, 2014
Thank you to the DPS clerk & supervisor in the Rosenberg office who took the time to read my daughters documentation & realize it was OK.-A
— Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October 24, 2014
I just sent the lone star state an email asking if I have two moms listed on my birth certificate, do I have to get that changed to get a drivers license from TX. Have not heard back yet.
Mayor Parker now reports that after THREE trips to the DPS in Rosenberg, all is in order and her daughter has her license.
Keeping it classy in Texas.
Thanks for the update, Bill. We just saw Mayor Parker’s tweets and will update the post.
This is Greg Abbott’s Texas. Words cannot convey my contempt for its institutionalized bigotry.
This is just another wonderful example of the Republican Party living out their mantra that government has no business interfering in the private lives of citizens—and if you believe that two-bit bullshit—I have some swamp land in the Sahara for you at a bargain price.