Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Michael Sam, who is expected to be a top draft pick in the NFL, announcing that he is gay.
I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it. I just want to own my truth.
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Dale Hansen of WFAA in Dallas, on several unnamed NFL officials saying Michael Sam might not be welcomed in the league.
It wasn’t that long ago when we were being told that black players couldn’t play in ‘our’ games because it would be ‘uncomfortable.’ And even when they finally could, it took several more years before a black man played quarterback. Because we weren’t “comfortable” with that, either. So many of the same people who used to make that argument — and the many who still do — are the same people who say government should stay out of our lives. I’ve never understood how they feel comfortable laying claim to both sides of that argument. But then want government in our bedrooms.
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Mark Silk, professor of religion in public life at Trinity College, wondering why the owners of Hobby Lobby are fighting the contraception mandate in Obamacare when similar mandates were already in place in 28 states before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law.
Why the (owners of Hobby Lobby) and their ilk found it possible to observe a contraception mandate without a peep when it was just the states doing the mandating is a question best answered by them.
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Responsive Ed CEO Chuck Cook, informing state official in Arkansas and Texas that it has pulled from its campuses a biology workbook that included creationism taught as science. Responsive Ed operates public charter schools in both states.
Because of the seriousness of the allegations, we removed the Biology workbook in question from our inventory and conducted an immediate and thorough review of the legal concerns expressed in the Slate article.
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Neel Lane, an attorney for the couples challenging Texas’ same-sex marriage ban, responding to the state’s argument that the ban doesn’t violate the couples’ rights.
It’s like holding someone’s head under water and saying, ‘You’re free to breathe, you’re just not free to breathe air.’
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Attorney General Eric Holder, announcing added recognition for same-sex married couples, vowing to treat same-sex spouses just like opposite-sex spouses in court proceedings, prison visitation and law-enforcement benefit programs even in states that don’t recognize same-sex marriages.
Then, as now, nothing less than our country’s commitment to the notion of equal protection under the law was on the line. And so the Justice Department’s role in confronting discrimination must be as aggressive today as it was in Robert Kennedy’s time. As Attorney General, I will not let this Department be simply a bystander during this important moment in history.
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U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., on re-introducing a resolution in the House to officially recognize Feb. 12, the birthday of Charles Darwin, as Darwin Day.
It’s already a thing, but whether it will be blessed by Congress depends on how highly evolved the members of Congress are.
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Virginia state Sen. Dick Saslaw, pushing for the repeal the state’s forced pre-abortion ultrasound law.
It is nobody’s damn business who gets an abortion except for the woman seeking it and the doctor she asks to care for her.
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U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II, ruling that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
Assigning a religious or traditional rationale for a law does not make it constitutional when that law discriminates against a class of people without other reasons.
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U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, on why she believes the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be repealed.
God listens to his people and I think if believers humble themselves, confess their sins, and pray, I think God hears from us, hears our hearts and He moves, He moves in miraculous ways.
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Texas state Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, in an open letter to his four fellow Republicans running for lieutenant governor. The four candidates — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples have made headlines for their tone on immigration during the campaign.
Most disconcerting to me was the tenor of your remarks. I heard fellow human beings referred to dismissively as ‘illegals.’ I heard that we must ‘stop the invasion,’ comparing those seeking the promise of our great country with war-mongering foreign adversaries. I heard statistics about crime committed by the undocumented, but heard nothing of the economic benefits recognized by the state’s agriculture, oil and gas and construction industries. Friends, these ‘illegals’ are people.
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BONUS: Rafael Cruz says things.
