Somebody seems to have been messing with Texas: Last week lawmakers trying to stop the spread of marriage equality got nearly every possible detail wrong.
It started with a 10-year anniversary "celebration" of the state's ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday. There's just one problem: The ban is still just nine and a half years old. Texas's so-called Marriage Act won't actually turn 10 until November, by which time the U.S. Supreme Court may rule that it's unconstitutional.
It's possible that the lawmakers' premature cake-cutting might actually have a been an intentional error: They probably realized that if they waited until the real anniversary, there might not be anything left for them to celebrate.
But a little fudging of dates pales in comparison to the comedy of errors that is state Rep. Tony Tinderholt. Last week the Tea Party-backed politician hand-scrawled a complaint regarding the judge who recently allowed a lesbian couple to obtain a marriage license. Tinderholt claimed that the judge failed to notify the attorney general of his ruling.
Unfortunately for Tinderholt, the judge actually did notify the attorney general. And even if he hadn't, that would still be fine, since his ruling was an injunction rather than a final judgment.
The icing on the cake, so to speak: Tinderholt addressed his complaint to the wrong judge.
The lesbian couple at the center of the controvery, needless to say, remains happily married.
