In a previous article, we talked briefly about the fact that you do not need residential status in a Texas county to get married in that county. In fact, you do not even have to be a resident of Texas to get married in the state.
We also mentioned that, for some LGBTQ couples, this could represent an opportunity to avoid some of the stress and microaggressions that could come with applying for marriage in certain areas of the state. While support for same-sex marriage is growing across demographic groups, a Pew study shows over a 30-percent gap in support between democratic and republican groups, with democrats showing 75 percent versus republicans’ 44 percent. A glance at nearly any Texas voting map should show you that the big cities are the only major democratic centers in the state.
Luckily, it is relatively easy to obtain a marriage license in a big city, such as San Antonio. If you were coming from out of town, you may want to make sure you have all of your documents in order before you leave. This is especially true of paperwork that requires notarization. For example, if you intended to apply for marriage alone, you would probably want to make sure that your documents were official to prevent delays as much as possible.
While we are certainly not advocating the toleration of civil rights violations, we would also understand if you did not want certain borderline behaviors to cloud any part of your marriage process. The same idea also may apply to other, more complicated family law procedures, such as adoption.
We would not necessarily expect any major problems from any agent of the great state of Texas. However, sometimes it is nice to get more than tolerance — to get respect. In any case, we hope that this knowledge will help you explore all of your options when it comes time to get your marriage license. Please continue on our main site for more information.