June 1, 2024 – Last week Republican Party delegates met in San Antonio to weigh in on the party platform and to vote on the priorities that the party would put forth to legislators in the 89th Legislative Session. Many issues ranked in the top 15 priorities. Those priorities are decided before most of the delegates even get into town and they are decided by the Legislative Priorities Committee. Among the top 15, of which only 8 will be priorities after the full body of delegates’ votes are tallied: border security, election integrity, stop sexualizing children, ban property taxes, no democrat chairs, prevent casino gambling, and others. One priority stood out, Equal Parenting. This plank says that “the party supports consistent and equivalent access and possession of a child when both parents, one biological man, and one biological woman, are fit, willing, and able as in the best interest of the child.”
This plank is at odds with the party’s position supporting covenant marriage and opposing no-fault divorce. While it may make sense for the platform to acknowledge the persistent problem of family courts denying due process, parental rights, and thereby alienating a parent from their child, the party came into agreement with the culture of divorce by prioritizing equal parenting (usually referred to as 50/50 custody) over ending unilateral no-fault divorce laws in Texas. No fault divorce has led to the breakdown of the nuclear family.
How did this happen? Several men came to testify in the Legislative Priorities Committee about their experience in family courts. They had sympathetic ears in the committee as several were friends with committee members. One cannot help but feel sympathetic to the fathers. These stories are all heartbreaking to hear and everyone agrees fathers are important and shouldn’t be cut off from their children when a marriage ends. The reality is that children need a stable environment and two parents that are married to each other is the most stable environment for children. That is why the party should have had rescinding no-fault divorce laws as a priority before it included equal parenting as a priority. There is no perfect formula for dividing a family. It shouldn’t be divided at all. The party should prioritize legislation that helps keep families together before it prioritizes legislation to mandate yet another formula for divorce.
Equal parenting often results in no child support order, which is one reason this is a popular formula for fathers who aren’t given primary custody as often as mothers. How will that help mothers who have stayed home for years? While she has to go back to work making low wages, her husband may have an established career. The mother and children are now seeing each other far less, and at the same time the children and the father see each other less. How does a mother with little income provide a home for her children without child support? There is no doubt that the current family code cuts both ways, it hurts mothers and fathers, but it mostly hurts children because it is easy for a husband or wife to throw away a marriage without any consequence and without trying to reconcile the marriage. It is a mistake for the Legislative Priorities Committee to come into agreement with divorce and divorce culture which puts adult desires before the needs of children. Judicial immunity should be eliminated. Judges should be held accountable for inappropriate or abusive rulings. No parent should have their parental rights wiped because they had the misfortune to get divorced. Unless two parents are willing to live within a few blocks of each other it is extremely impractical to divide time equally. Extended possession in Texas is already a 43/57 split of time between parents with the custodial parent getting more sleeping and school hours than the non-custodial parent. It makes sense to make a statement within the platform in support of parental rights not being revoked due to a divorce. A father shouldn’t lose contact with his children without due process. Judicial discretion should be dialed back. Fathers are important and so are mothers. Formulas for divorce only lead to calculations of whether divorce is beneficial to the adult seeking the divorce. The party should maintain a strong position in support of marriage rather than making divorce easier for some people.
The top 8 priorities are not yet known. Delegates who stayed until the final moments of the convention were able to vote on the priorities to determine which 8 of the 15 will be the top priorities of the party. Completely missing from priorities was any mention gender issues, such as men accessing women’s spaces and categories. Texas currently issues driver’s licenses, ID, and birth certificates that have sex identifier change to reflect a person’s “gender identity” instead of their biological sex. This is done after a judge issues an order. The only mention of gender ideology was in the Stop Sexualizing Kids priority which stated that schools cannot teach gender ideology. It is hard to believe that the social transition of children didn’t make the list of the top 15 when you consider that social transition leads to medical transition more than 95% of the time. Hopefully, the delegates chose other priorities to champion but we won’t know for a few more weeks.
It looks like those fighting the trans movement in Texas will not be getting the support of the TX GOP in the way of making it a legislative priority. Too bad.
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