Same-sex marriage in Texas

Same-sex marriage is legal in Texas and all other U.S. states as per the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015. Same-sex couples began obtaining marriage licenses in some counties of the state within hours of the ruling, while other counties awaited direction from state officials, local county attorney advice, or were awaiting corrected state marriage license forms. In one or more counties, local officials or judges refused to marry same-sex couples on religious grounds. Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion supporting officials who refused to grant marriage licenses in defiance of the Obergefell ruling.

Prior to that ruling, same-sex marriage was not legal in Texas, although a state court ordered the Travis County clerk to issue one marriage license to two women on February 19, 2015, citing the illness of one of them. On February 26, 2014, Judge Orlando Garcia, of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, found that Texas's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. On April 23, 2014, Judge Barbara Nellermoe, of the 45th Judicial District Court of Bexar County, found that Texas's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Both cases were appealed.

After the Obergefell ruling, nearly all counties started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. As of June 22, 2016, Irion County is the only holdout in Texas. It is one of the only counties in the country that refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the others being in Alabama. As of August 2015, two other Texas counties (Loving and Mills) also refused to license same-sex couples, claiming to have delayed implementation while they updated paperwork or software, but they had started issuing by September 4.

In 1997, the Texas Legislature prohibited the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In 2003, the Legislature enacted a statute that made void in Texas any same-sex marriage or civil union. This statute also prohibits the state or any agency or political subdivision of the state from giving effect to same-sex marriages or civil unions performed in other jurisdictions.

...
Wikipedia