Texas lawmakers still refuse to recognize the reality of families headed by same-sex parents, but the federal government will.
With just days left in the current legislative session in Texas, a bill — HB 201 — that would have changed the state’s supplementary birth certificates to allow the listing of same-sex parents for adopted children has already died in a House committee. But the federal Department of Education recognizes that an increasing number of families are headed by same-sex parents. One way the feds will do that is by changing student aid forms for college students, replacing “mother” and “father” with “Parent 1” and “Parent 2.”
That seems like a fairly innocuous change, but religious-right groups are — of course — outraged. (Outraged!):
(C)ritics say the move is “deeply offensive.”
Cathy Ruse, of the Family Research Council—which campaigns for traditional marriage—says, “I carried my children for nine months in my womb, I endured the pain (and joy) of birth, I nursed them for many months after they were born, and every morning they jump into my bed screaming, ‘Mommy!’
“But the federal government says I’m Mommy no more. I am Parent 1. Or maybe Parent 2. Mr. President, I dare you to tell my daughters I’m not their mother.”
The federal government is saying no such thing. But Ruse’s absurd protest sound very similar to a claim made by Texas Values, the lobby arm of Plano-based Liberty Institute, on HB 201 by state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas. As we told you last December, Texas Values insisted that HB 201 would require the state to drop “mother” and “father” from all birth certificates. PolitiFact Texas exposed that claim as untrue.
Even so, HB 201 didn’t pass the Texas Legislature. And Texas falls further and further behind the rest of the country when it comes to treating all Americans and their families equally under the law.
