According to 365gay.com, Texas State Representative David Swinford, a Republican from Dumas, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee in the Lone Star State, led the effort to strip a proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution precluding same-sex marriage of a clause that would bar civil unions and same sex benefits. “It just goes too far,” he said. Another Republican, Rep. Martha Wong of Houston, was “shocked” to see the provision barring civil unions. Wong “supports a ban on gay marriage.” The amendment’s author, also a Republican, Warren Chisum of Pampa, agreed to remove the new language, but would try to amend the bill when the full House debated it.
I still hope (but doubt) that this proposed amendment (even without the anti-civil unions clause) goes down to defeat, but, this shows that while some Republicans in the very “red” state of Texas, like many Republicans in the “blue” state of Connecticut, may balk at state recognition of same-sex marriage, they favor (or at least are not opposed to) civil unions.
With this in mind, I repeat a point I made yesterday, “the best strategy for now is to pursue civil unions in state legislatures.”
UPDATE: North Dallas Thirty has a more in-depth post on this very topic.