“[U]nelected judges should not be substituting their own policy views for the reasoned judgments of the citizens of Texas” — Senator Ted Cruz, complaining about a federal judge who found Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage to be in conflict with the U.S. Constitution

And that, in a nutshell, is the only remaining defense that Texans — or anyone else in America — has for supporting statewide bans on same-sex marriage.

The procreation argument has failed at every level.

The biblical argument? Even more disastrous. Put aside for a moment the question of church/state separation and just look at the wackadoo marriage laws found in the bible. Any of the Old Testamenteers would be completely confused by our one man-one woman system. “What no concubines? No slaves? No incest? What’s wrong with you people?” (N.B. They might’ve said “What the hell is wrong with you people?”, only hell hadn’t been invented yet.)

The traditionalist argument — that is, saying that “this is the way it’s always been done”? Equally abysmal failure. In fact, it’s always an abysmal failure.

And so now, people like the Senator from the Great State of Texas by way of Canada are doing the only thing they can:

1) Attacking unelected judges (you know, the ones that are generally censured at a lower rate than their elected colleagues)

2) Attacking “activist” judges (though of course, they’re only activists if they rule against the conservative cause).

3) Defending state’s rights (which seems sound, except the Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution opens the door to mandating that states, at the very least, recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states)

I’m no lawyer, but given the way that things are going in the courts, it seems to me that states like Texas, Kentucky, and even my own home states of Louisiana and Mississippi, will soon be required to respect same-sex marriages performed in the growing number of states where they are legal. Mississippi probably won’t be obligated to issue same-sex marriage licenses itself, but it will be obligated to acknowledge the validity of licenses from Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and elsewhere.

And then, 20 years from now, when bigots like Tony Perkins and many of my former neighbors have died and crumbled into hermetically sealed dust, THEN the door to legal, same-sex marriage in the Deep South will probably open. Probably.

P.S. Please note that I made it all the way through my short rant without commenting on Cruz’s “reasoned judgments of the citizens of Texas”. *Pats self on back*