But gay marriage licenses will not be issued during the appeals process.
Federal judge Orlando Garcia struck down a traditional marriage law in Texas, saying that it was unconstitutional.
“Today’s court decision is not made in defiance of the great people of Texas or the Texas Legislature, but in compliance with the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent,” he said in his order, according to Dallas News. “Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our U.S. Constitution.”
Traditional marriage defender Ryan Anderson strongly disagreed with the rulings. "These rulings claim that the equal protection of the law requires the redefinition of marriage," he wrote in a blog post for the Heritage Foundation. "It does not. State laws that reflect the truth about marriage should be ruled constitutional."
The Catholic Church has always taught that marriage is the exclusive, life-long union of one man and one woman, existing for the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children. In 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith issued a document answering whether Catholics could support legal same sex unions. It concluded:
Brantly Millegan is an Assistant Editor for Aleteia. He is also Co-Founder and Co-Editor of Second Nature, Co-Director of the International Institute for the Study of Technology and Christianity, and is working on a M.A. in Theology at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He lives with his wife and children in South St. Paul, MN. His personal website is brantlymillegan.com.
