SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Two same-sex couples on Monday filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging Texas’ constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
The suit, filed U.S. District Court in San Antonio by attorney Barry Chasnoff on behalf of Mark Pharris and Vic Holmes and Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman, seeks a court order barring Texas officials from enforcing the ban, reported the San Antonio Express-News.
“In Texas, plaintiffs cannot legally marry their partner before family, friends, and society — a right enjoyed by citizens who wish to marry a person of the opposite sex. And should they become married in a state that has established marriage equality, Texas explicitly voids their marriage,” according to the complaint.
“There is no rational basis, much less a compelling government purpose, for Texas to deny plaintiffs the same right to marry enjoyed by the majority of society,” the suit alleges.
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Pharris and Holmes are from Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb, and De Leon and Dimetman are from San Antonio.
The lawsuit claims provisions of the Texas constitution and other state laws barring same-sex marriage violate protections of the U.S. constitution, such as the right to equal protection under the law.
