Tag: Greg Abbott

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Orders (Almost) All Texans To Wear Face Masks In Public

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (screen capture)
For months, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) refused to require citizens of the Lone Star state to wear face masks when out in public. In fact, he banned local governments from doing so. But with new cases of the coronavirus hitting record numbers, Abbott has now issued a statewide mandate requiring Texans to wear masks in public in any county with 20 or more positive COVID-19 cases. From the Texas Tribune:

The order requires Texans living in counties more than 20 coronavirus cases to wear a face covering over the nose and mouth while in a business or other building open to the public, as well as outdoor public spaces, whenever social distancing is not possible.

But it provides several exceptions, including children who are younger than 10 years old, people who have a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask, people who are eating or drinking and people who are exercising outdoors.

The mask order goes into effect at 12:01 p.m. Friday. It immediately applies to all Texas counties, but counties with 20 or fewer active cases can be exempted — if they opt out. County judges must submit an application to be exempted to the Texas Division of Emergency Management. TDEM will list the counties that have opted out on its website.

He also banned certain outdoor gatherings of over 10 people unless local officials approve. He had previously set the threshold at over 100 people.

Without naming names or pointing fingers, Abbott’s order specifically does NOT exempt one group: “any person attending a protest or demonstration” with over 10 people who cannot socially distance. Black Lives Matter movement – he’s talking to you. Hospitalizations for coronavirus hit 6,904 on Wednesday, the third straight day setting a new record.

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Transgender Woman Brilliantly Trolls Texas Governor On Proposed “Bathroom Bill”

Ashley Smith, a transgender Texas woman, brilliantly trolled Gov. Greg Abbott with this pic posted to Instagram.

Posing with the governor after the announcement of his re-election campaign, Smith shared the photo on Instagram after tagging #BATHROOMBUDDY across the top.

Along with the pic, Smith captioned the post saying, “How will the Potty Police know I’m transgender if the Governor doesn’t?”

The Texas Legislature begins a special session called by the governor where a big focus will be on passing an anti-trans “bathroom bill” which would require trans people to use public restrooms which correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate.

I should note, however, that even states that actually provide public accommodation protections for trans people can’t ensure they will be treated with respect.

Here in Las Vegas, a transgender woman visiting from San Francisco was recently barred from using the ladies room at the New York-New York Hotel. Nevada state law expressly says gender identity is a protected class against discrimination in the state.

This is why we need The Equality Act passed in Congress which would address LGBT protections on a federal level.

Of course, that’s not going to happen with the current Republican controlled Congress.

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Texas Governor-elect Greg Abbott: Gay Marriages During Appeal Would Be “Deeply Offensive”

Texas Governor-elect Greg Abbott says it would be “deeply offensive” for same-sex marriages to take place during the appeal of a federal district judge’s ruling striking down the state’s marriage bans.

Abbott made the comments during a press conference Monday where he unveiled his agenda and staff as governor, the Associated Press reports:

The governor-elect didn’t mention gay marriage until he was asked about the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which next month will hear a case in which a judge in February struck down Texas’ ban.

Some advocates have asked other Texas judges to begin performing gay marriages pending the appeal, but Abbott said that would be “deeply offensive” since it “would be a clear rebuke of the 5th Circuit’s jurisdiction.”

Oral arguments are scheduled for January 9th in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding US District Judge Orlando Garcia’s ruling which struck down Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage.

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Texas Attorney General: Same-Sex Marriage Bans Reduce Out-Of-Wedlock Births

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a brief with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals which asserts the state’s ban on same-sex marriage should remain in place because it reduces out-of-wedlock births.

“Texas’s marriage laws are rationally related to the State’s interest in reducing unplanned out-of-wedlock births. By channeling procreative heterosexual intercourse into marriage, Texas’s marriage laws reduce unplanned out-of-wedlock births and the costs that those births impose on society,” the brief read. “Recognizing same-sex marriage does not advance this interest because same-sex unions do not result in pregnancy. At the very least, one could rationally believe that opposite-sex marriages will do more to advance the State’s interest in reducing unplanned out-of-wedlock births than same-sex marriages will.”

The brief went on to state:

“Same-sex marriage may very well produce other societal benefits – such as increasing household wealth or providing a stable environment for children raised by same-sex couples – but that does not establish that Texas’s marriage laws lack a rational relation to the State’s interests in reducing unplanned out-of-wedlock births and encouraging the creation of new offspring.”

The 5th Circuit recently agreed to expedite oral arguments in the case challenging Texas’s ban on same-sex marriage.

You can read the brief below:

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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott uses failed “procreation” tactic in 5th Circuit Court appeal

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says marriage should only be about procreation

Despite the fact that two federal appeals courts have rejected procreation as a legal reason to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has chosen to use that very argument (creative) in his filing to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

From the Statesman:

“By recognizing and encouraging the lifelong commitment between a man and woman — even when they do not produce offspring — the state encourages others who will procreate to enter into the marriage relationship,” Abbott said in the state’s first brief, filed late Monday at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Promoting opposite-sex marriages “increases the likelihood that children will be born into stable environments where they are raised by their mother and their father,” Abbott argued.

Such family structures are good for the children’s well being and good for the state because they increase the likelihood that parents, not society, “will bear the cost of raising these children,” the brief said.

“Because same-sex relationships do not naturally produce children, recognizing same-sex marriage does not further these goals to the same extent that recognizing opposite-sex marriage does,” Abbott said.

The legal landscape has significantly changed since February, when U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled that the Texas ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional because it relegates gay couples to “second-tier status” and demeans their dignity for no legitimate reason.

Garcia, who also tossed out Texas’ ban on recognizing same-sex marriages legally performed in other states, was the fourth federal judge to make a similar ruling since late December, following jurists in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia.

Federal judges in 10 other states have overturned same-sex marriage bans saying the laws violate the US Constitution.

Plus, two federal appeals courts have upheld such rulings. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling yesterday that Virginia’s ban prohibited same-sex couples “from participating fully in our society.” And the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in similar rulings for Utah and Oklahoma.

Both the 4th Circuit and the 10th Circuit specifically addressed the issue that procreation is no justification for discriminating against gays and lesbians.

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Sarah Palin endorses Abbott:”Good enough for Ted Nugent, good enough for me”

Sarah Palin, former half-term governor of Alaska, has endorsed Greg Abbott for governor of Texas saying he is “good enough:”

“Check the box for another good conservative – Greg Abbott for Governor of Texas. Like Katrina, Greg has overcome many personal obstacles and challenges, which have made him a believer in the power of liberty and the need to defend our freedoms from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government. If he is good enough for Ted Nugent, he is good enough for me!”

Speaking of Ted Nugent, that would be the same guy who last month described President Obama as “subhuman mongrel.”

That is the same language Nazis called Jews to justify the genocide of the Jewish community.

I’m guessing that’s good enough for Sarah Palin, too.