A California woman who recently moved to Texas says she was denied a driver’s license because her new state would not recognize the last name she took in a same-sex marriage.
Connie Wilson took her spouse Aimee’s last name when they legally married in California. The couple and their three children recently moved to Pasadena, in the Houston area, where Connie Wilson says the Department of Public Safety would not accept her marriage certificate as a secondary form of identification to obtain a Texas license, according to ABC local affiliate KTRK-TV.
Same-sex marriages are not recognized in Texas, and marriage equality advocates face a steep uphill battle in the state.
"The DPS employee looked at it [the certificate], looked all over it, noticed it was a woman's name at the top and her immediate response was, 'Is this same?'" Connie Wilson explained to local news outlet KHOU.
“I knew what she meant, and I knew I would have a problem," Wilson told KTRK.
In a statement released to KTRK and KHOU, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Wilson will now have to get a court order to obtain a Texas license.
Wilson is worried that being denied a license will interfere with her closing on her new house and doesn’t expect the issue to be resolved in time for her to vote in the November election.
“I'm being prohibited from having the last name of my children. I think that's a violation of me as a person,” Wilson told KHOU. “I may as well pick another name out a hat.”
Her trouble caught the attention of Texas State Senator Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston), who said she is looking into the issue.
“We don't want this to happen to anyone else in Texas," she told KTRK. "This is not the way to treat someone who is relocating to our state. We need to make sure they can buy homes, get jobs and register to vote."
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