Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer LGBTQ people in Texas have some protections in state law but may face legal and social challenges not faced by others. Same-sex sexual activity was decriminalized in Texas in by the Lawrence v. Texas ruling. On June 26, , the Supreme Court of the United States ruled bans on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Texas has a hate crime statute that strengthens penalties for certain crimes motivated by a victim's sexual orientation , although crimes are rarely prosecuted under the statute.
The law does not cover gender identity. The federal protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, established in by several landmark cases , apply in Texas. As of to date, the state's sodomy law, though unenforceable, hasn't been repealed by the Texas Legislature. Until the U. Supreme Court in June declared sodomy laws unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas , sodomy was a criminal offense in Texas, termed "deviate sexual intercourse". Texas provides an affirmative defense to a person who has engaged in unlawful sexual contact with a child under 17 years of age, if the person is not more than three years older than the child, so long as the person is not of the child's same sex.
Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges , in which the court held that same-sex marriage bans breach the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. On June 26, , the United States legalized same-sex marriage nationwide due to the U. Supreme Court 's decision in Obergefell v. The first legal challenge to Texas' ban on marriage between 2 people of the same sex came in when Travis Co Attorney Ned Granger requested an opinion from Attorney General Crawford Martin on the legality of issuing such licenses.
Martin issued an opinion that, despite the lack of a specific prohibition against same-sex marriage in statute, it was not legally permitted. HB became effective on January 1, Additional legislation in forbade the recognition of any same-sex marriages or civil unions. In , voters approved a referendum that added those restrictions to the Constitution of Texas. One ordered the recognition of a common-law marriage between two women and the other order the county clerk to issue a marriage license to two women.
They obtained their license and wed before Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained stays from the Texas Supreme Court and asked that court to void the marriage license. Same sex-marriages have been recognized throughout the state since Currently, there is no recognition of domestic partnerships at the statewide level in Texas for either same-sex or opposite-sex couples.
