Opinion: Tigua casino and women's voting rights

Monday, April 6, 2009  

"If you hang around the Texas Legislature long enough — usually about 45 minutes or so will do it — you're likely to see something unlikely.

Recent highlight from the Department of the Unlikely: Female lawmakers emerging from a closed-door meeting and declaring it none of their business if some Texas women are not allowed to vote in their local elections.

At issue was that women in El Paso's Tigua tribe are barred from voting in tribal council elections. The topic came up at the Capitol because the tribe, again, is seeking legislative action allowing it to reopen its once-profitable Speaking Rock Casino.

The female-voting issue engenders discussion about traditions versus a human right as basic as voting.

And for some female lawmakers, it leads to a lot of that-being-said moments leading to a none-of-our-business posture about female voting rights.

Days before the meeting, Democratic Rep. Valinda Bolton of Austin said that "the right to vote is a basic human right.""

Get the Story:
Ken Herman: Should Tigua tradition trump women's right to vote? (The Austin American-Statesman 4/5)