Born on the East coast, where he spent most of his life, Carl Blyth confesses he was a bit worried before moving to Austin, the capital of Texas, in 1993. “I thought Texas was ugly, dry and Republican. It IS Republican. But much more diverse than people outside of Texas think. And the "People’s Republic of Austin" is very different from conservative Dallas or even Houston”.

Austin is where Carl was able to come out and reach an amicable divorce settlement with his wife in 1997, before rebuilding a family with Joe Salvato whom he met in 2004. Carl’s first two daughters, Sarah and Katie were teenagers at the time. But the youngest, Claire, was still in kindergarten. “So we’ve shared the father’s role and Joe did a lot at home”, says Carl.





















“Except once, at a daycare, where they didn’t let me pick up Claire because I hadn’t signed a paper, it has never been a problem”, says Joe, who applied to be a foster parent before meeting Carl.



​The lack of domestic partnership or official recognition for unmarried partners in Texas presents difficulties for Carl and Joe. “That’s unfair, and provokes many practical problems, explains Carl. For example, Joe has access to the swimming pool and the gym at the University of Texas, where I work. But I cannot put him on my health insurance, whereas my ex-wife was on it”.

 

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“The only way for Carl to make decisions for me if I became very sick, is thanks to some legal documents we asked an attorney to establish for us for only a few hundred dollars, only because she’s a friend and, as a landscape designer, I rearranged her garden for free”, adds Joe, who had to deal with this issue when his previous partner died from an HIV-related disease in 1999. (…)

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To defend gay rights, Carl and Joe support the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Texas. (…) And Carl's daughters relate some Texans' homophobic attitudes to a generally conservative stance on many issues such as a lack of access to birth control and abortion.



On November 6th, the whole family will vote for Obama. “He doesn’t defend his legacy enough and you can never agree on all points with a candidate. But he did send positive signs to the gay community, says Carl. Romney’s election would be a disaster”.
Only Kiran, Sarah’s husband, will not take part in the vote. He didn’t register on time after moving to Texas. “I feel more and more guilty as Obama’s going down in polls”.