Is change coming for same-sex couples in Texas?

Caren Ruth Wooldridge can’t help it — she checks the news and Internet constantly these days to see whether the Supreme Court has ruled on gay marriage.

Will Texas, which has a decade-old ban on same-sex marriages, be forced to allow them?

Or will everything stay the same?

“I’m checking three, four, five, 12 times a day,” said Wooldridge, who was denied a license in Tarrant County to marry her partner, Phoebe DeSantis, in 2012. “If it doesn’t go through, we go back to the default position we have right now.

“If it happens, life will change.”

She and countless others are waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on whether same-sex marriages are legal nationwide. Since a ruling didn’t come Thursday, it is now expected either Friday or Monday.

Other states have gradually allowed same-sex marriages, many forced by court rulings to do so.

Texas — where lawmakers passed a measure in 2003 stipulating that marriage is a union of one man and one woman and where voters added a gay-marriage ban to the state’s constitution in 2005 — has been one of the holdout states, which have dwindled to 13.

The state’s ban on same-sex marriage has been in jeopardy since last year, when a federal judge in San Antonio said it was unconstitutional. The judge delayed overturning it until an appeals court could weigh in.

A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll shows that Texas voters are divided on the issue: 44 percent believe same-sex couples should be able to marry; 41 percent believe they should not; and 14 percent don’t know.

Making it legal?

Many have long expected the Supreme Court to rule that same-sex couples can marry, and some county clerk’s offices in Texas have been planning accordingly.

From Austin to Dallas, officials have said they plan to keep longer hours to handle what they believe will be a big demand for same-sex marriage licenses.

In Fort Worth, the office of Tarrant County Clerk Mary Louise Garcia “is required and committed to following the law” when issuing marriage licenses, according to a recent statement.

“In the event the [district attorney’s] office informs us of a law change regarding same sex marriage, we will be prepared to issue licenses without unnecessary delay,” according to a statement from Jeff Nicholson, Garcia’s chief deputy. “We issue marriage licenses from eight different locations, and feel very confident we can service all of our customers satisfactorily.”

The DA’s office said it is waiting for a legal decision to determine whether changes are needed.

Marriage license applications include a blank for one man and one woman. Officials have said the forms, issued by the Texas Department of State Health Services, would need to be revamped.

“We didn’t want to use taxpayer money in advance to work on potential draft forms until we know what the language of the law is going to be,” said Sam Jordan, communications officer for the Tarrant County district attorney’s office.

Susan Hays, an Austin appellate attorney, has been reviewing the law at the request of a friend and says “counties don’t make the forms.”

“Counties have to use applications identical to the state’s,” she said. “If the Supreme Court says it’s unconstitutional to discriminate on the basis of gender, there’s no reason clerks shouldn’t issue licenses” that day.

She also noted that the Family Code doesn’t require Texans to identify their gender on the license applications.

Texas ban

Some Texas lawmakers have asked Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session on same-sex marriage if the Supreme Court overturns the ban.

At issue is a proposal that died during the regular session and that’s meant to prevent state and local officials from issuing same-sex marriage licenses. It would strip the salaries of officials who give out or honor the licenses.

Abbott has said he doesn’t expect any special sessions. He has also said he hopes the Supreme Court maintains each state’s right to address marriage on its own.

“Texans voted overwhelmingly to define marriage in this state as the union of one man and one woman,” Abbott said this year. “Texans — not unelected federal judges — should decide this important question for their state.

“I sincerely hope the U.S. Supreme Court will respect the sovereign right of states to define marriage.”

Conservative lawmakers did pass the Pastor Protection Act, which lets religious officials refuse to conduct wedding ceremonies that go against their beliefs.

Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, said he and others have been considering potential legal options depending on what the ruling says.

“A lot of people think, as they did with the [Roe v. Wade] abortion ruling, that it will all be over and it will be finally decided,” he said. “But it won’t be.

“When these things have passed, there has always been an attack on religious freedom. Once [the ruling] happens, there will be a significant uprising of the American people in opposition to what has happened.”

Wooldridge said she agrees the court ruling may spark another long legal fight.

Wooldridge, diagnosed with cancer in 2013, said she and DeSantis, who have a 4-year-old son, Max, could have gone to another state to get married.

But that’s not what they wanted.

DeSantis, in particular, “didn’t want to do it until it was legal where we are.”

If they can legally marry here, Wooldridge said, they will have “a real wedding” in Fort Worth. One day, Wooldridge believes, the photos of the wedding will serve as a history lesson.

“Someday, he [Max] and others in his age group will look back on our generation the way we look back on the civil-rights generation and say, ‘How could they have lived that way?’”

This story was originally published June 24, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Is change coming for same-sex couples in Texas?."