As First Couple Marries in Texas, Now is the Time for the 5th Circuit to Act

HRC congratulates Travis County newlyweds Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant and wonders why other couples are still being harmed and forced to endure discrimination.

WASHINGTON - February 19, 2015 —The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today congratulated Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, the first same-sex couple to successfully obtain a marriage license in Texas. The Travis County nuptials took place after a state judge David Wahlberg issued an order requiring the local clerk to issue a license in light of Goodfriend's recent illness:

"Plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at law for the damage and the continuing harm that this course of action is causing them and will continue to cause them, and thus the only remedy available to Plaintiffs is the issuance of a temporary restraining order to prevent that ongoing unconstitutional denial of Plaintiff's constitutional rights."

The order from Judge Wahlberg follows a different order from probate judge Guy Herman yesterday recognizing the marriage of Sonemaly Phrasavath to her late wife Stella Powell for the purposes of the execution of Powell's estate.

These new Texas marriage developments are taking place as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit continues to deliberate in DeLeon v. Perry, the federal case challenging Texas's ban on marriage equality. The three judge panel heard oral arguments in the case back in January, after plaintiffs Mark Phariss & Vic Holmes and Cleopatra De Leon & Nicole Dimetan scored a key victory striking down Texas's marriage from a federal district judge in February of 2014.

"There's no good reason why every loving couple in Texas shouldn't have access to the same opportunity to marry, and the time is ripe for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to issue its ruling," said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. "All couples in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, states covered by the 5th Circuit, should have access to marriage licenses as soon as possible. In light of recent events, we firmly believe that the Texas courts should not issue a stay in the case at hand."

HRC is proud to count Goodfriend, Bryant, Phrasavath, Phariss, Holmes, De Leon and Dimetan as longtime friends and supporters of the organization in Texas.

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.