Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Texas Hopes To Yank Marriage License for Lesbian Couple

The Texas attorney general asked the state’s Supreme Court on Friday to revoke a marriage license issued a day earlier to two women, arguing the move violated a decade-old state ban against gay marriage and could cause legal chaos.

Travis County, where the capital Austin is located, issued a marriage license to Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, who have been together for about 30 years and have two daughters. It was the first license issued to a same-sex couple in Texas since the ban was put in place.

A county judge made a one-time exception to allow the license to be issued, saying Goodfriend was in poor health due to ovarian cancer and denying the couple the license violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who has pledged to fight for the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman, said, “the rogue actions of Travis County judges do not withstand the scrutiny of law,” filing the petition with the Texas Supreme Court to have the license declared void.

“Relief from this Court is necessary to avoid the legal chaos that would follow if the trial court’s ruling is mistakenly interpreted as authorization for the creation or recognition of same-sex marriages in Travis County or throughout the State,” the petition said.

A U.S. district judge in Texas last year ruled the state’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional because it denied same-sex couples equal protection under the law. Enforcement of the decision is on hold pending an appeal.

Supporters of the couple have argued the license is valid and Paxton is standing on the wrong side of history by trying to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.