AUSTIN – Gay marriage was the subject of a heated panel discussion at the 2014 Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday.

The panel featured an array of advocates, lawmakers, pundits and legal minds that are rarely asked to discuss this divisive issue face-to-face, let alone be forced to sit on the same stage.

The discussion started on Texas’ gay marriage ban, added to the state Constitution by voters in 2005, and the effort to reverse it that is currently pending in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. But it quickly devolved into a political and ideological debate over everything from polyamory to whether children of single-parent homes are destined to be less healthy.

“Texas is a Jim Crow state for gays and lesbians,” said Daniel McNeel Lane, Jr, a San Antonio-based lawyer who is defending the couples in the Texas case. He said arguments like those used by the 63 Texas lawmakers in an amicus brief supporting the state’s gay marriage ban are simply fear tactics.

“Waving the bloody shirt of polygamy…it’s a fear tactic and it’s hogwash,” said McNeel, referring to the argument that granting marriage access to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans will lead to the legalization of polygamy, bestiality and pedophilia.

State Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, spoke of her experience as the only openly pan-sexual elected official in the nation. Gonzalez does not believe in the binary gender framework of masculinity and femininity, and is attracted to people regardless of gender identity.

“To be completely honest, it’s been very difficult,” said Gonzalez, who then told the anti-gay marriage panelists: “As you’re working to define marriage, I’m working to define discrimination.”

Jonathan Saenz is one of the state’s most outspoken critics of gay marriage. President of the conservative non-profit Texas Values, Saenz said the definition of marriage should sit with Legislatures.

“These laws and these changes are being used as weapons against people of religious faith,” said Saenz, adding gay marriage proponents were using “the judiciary to take away the will of the people, the role of the people.”

State Rep. Matt Krause, R-Tyler, agreed with Saenz. He also shed some light on the Texas Republican Party’s controversial decision to endorse reparative therapy in its 2014 platform, saying a GOP delegate had undergone such a program – largely debunked by medical doctors and psychologists as deeply harmful – and wanted to ensure it wasn’t banned in Texas like it has been in other states like California.

Krause raised eyebrows when he referenced a John Hopkins study from the 1970s saying children of single-parent homes were more likely to grow up unhealthy, suffering from maladies including tumors. Emily Ramshaw, Texas Tribune editor countered: “Wait, are you suggesting not having a father leads to tumors?” Krause responded that the report represented a small-scale case study.

Krause and Saenz also clashed with fellow Republican and panelist Mark McKinnon, a former strategist for George W. Bush who has openly fought in favor of same-sex marriage.

“Let’s start expanding freedom rather than limiting freedom,” McKinnon said, adding expanding gay marriage rights falls in line with Republican values of a small, unobtrusive government.

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, a Bill Clinton appointee based in San Antonio, ruled Texas’ ban unconstitutional in February because it violated gay couples’ 14th Amendment rights to due process and equal protection. The state has until Sept. 26 to file a response brief to the 5th Circuit. The appeals court will then set a date for oral arguments.

In total, four federal appeals courts have overturned state gay marriage bans. The fight for gay marriage has netted one major loss, however, when a federal judge in Louisiana upheld the state’s ban earlier this month.

The New Orleans appeals court is seen as one of the most conservative in the country. Regardless of how this court rules, parties on both sides of the fight expect the U.S. Supreme Court to make the final determination on the issue.