The First Amendment might protect the right of Americans “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” but some Texans found out today that it doesn’t bar elected officials from insulting people who exercise that right.
Today Equality Texas tried to deliver to the office of state Attorney General Greg Abbott thousands of petitions from Texans asking Abbott and Gov. Rick Perry to stop defending the state’s unconstitutional ban on same-sex marriage. But Abbott, who opposes marriage equality, decided to be petty about it and had the folks delivering those petitions turned away in the lobby. From an Equality Texas email earlier today:
Equality Texas and several same-sex couples and their families had planned to deliver over 5,200 petitions to Attorney General Greg Abbott urging that he and Governor Rick Perry drop their defense of the state’s hurtful and discriminatory ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Despite the plans prearranged last week in which a staff member would meet us in the lobby and take possession of the petitions, the Attorney General’s office said they would only accept the petitions if they were mailed via an acceptable ground carrier.
Not to be deterred, the families trucked the wagon down the street to a nearby UPS Store and the petitions will be delivered to the Attorney General’s office on Tuesday.
So instead of gracefully accepting petitions from his fellow Texans, Attorney General Abbott arrogantly decided to insult them and force Equality Texas to spend money, unnecessarily, to have the petitions delivered commercially instead. How petty.
More from Equality Texas:
Just as these families were turned away today, every day that these discriminatory laws remain in place is another day that Texas couples and their families are denied the dignity and respect they are due under the United States Constitution.
Unfortunately Abbott is very likely to become our next governor just because he will have the R on the ballot. He will not serve the average Texan well and I would hope the flavor of his administration will wake folks up so they demand more moderate Republicans or even consider Democrats in subsequent state elections.
Texans have the sorry government they have because it’s easier to whine about politicians than to do something about them. What are YOU doing for the next 100 days?
Texas can rid itself of these repub. jerks if they simply get out and vote. Repubs are elected in this state with very small percentages of the registered voters. We need to give average Texans a reason to get out and vote. I truly hope that Wendy Davis can give Texans a reason to vote for her. She needs to start talking a lot more about what she wants to do for Texans and convince them that she is worth their vote. We have the government we do because a minority of people who do vote are raging lunatics who are mostly racist bigots, and the others simply don’t care to inform themselves about the candidate, and vote for the person with the R behind their name. You want a different and better state government? VOTE for one!