Dallas County District Judge Martin Hoffman had a response to Justice Clarence Thomas’ Dobbs decision footnote — he married couples.
The Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade taking away abortion rights. In his addendum to the opinion, Thomas said he’d like to review the right to contraception, the right for same sex couples to engage in private sexual relations and right for gays and lesbians to marry. Of couorse, the one right Thomas doesn’t want reviewed is the right for intersex couples to marry — the decision upon which marriage equality for same-sex couples was based.
To show that many judges disagree with taking away people’s rights, Judge Hoffman decorated his courtroom in rainbows of balloons, brought in cake from Cake Bar in Trinity Groves and welcomed couples to marry with waiting times and fees waived.
To his surprise, mostly opposite-sex couples took advantage of the offer, but same-sex couples did participate in the celebration in his courtroom on Friday, Oct. 7. Was that disappointing? No, Not at all. The day was about marriage equality for all couples, not just some couples.
One of the couples brought at least 50 guests along with them. Hoffman said it was the largest wedding party he’d ever had in his courtroom in his 14 years on the bench. And he’s done more than 1,000 marriages in his court.
Another couple was remarrying because after 20 years together, they discovered the judge had forgotten to sign their marriage license. A new marriage was easier than fixing the original problem.
One other couple apologized for how they were dressed. They had come downtown to get their license expecting to have to wait three days. When they heard they could marry that day at no cost, they jumped at the opportunity.
lesbian