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| ‘We have already launched efforts to stop this and we will not rest until
this hateful attempt is stopped,’ said Joseph Price, an
attorney and the board chair of Equality Virginia.
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: ADRIAN BRUNE COMMENTS
Following the lead of 13 other states that enacted constitutional amendments
to ban same-sex marriage this year, the Virginia legislature plans to consider
its own amendment next month, despite sweeping state laws that already prohibit
gay marriage.
Del. John Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake) has announced his intent to introduce HJ
528 when the 2005 session opens on Jan. 12. Cosgrove drafted HJ 528 to amend
Article I, Section 16-A of the Virginia Constitution by adding two sentences
stipulating that a “marriage may exist only between one man and one woman.”
The proposed legislation further states that no provision of the Virginia Constitution
should be interpreted to require the state to permit or recognize same-sex unions
of any kind, thus preventing state judges from requiring the state to enact
other forms of legal recognition for gay couples, including civil unions.
To some Virginia legislators and gay residents of the state, the addition of
yet another measure preventing gays from marrying in Virginia seems redundant.
To social conservatives, it emerges as a necessary means of ensuring same-sex
unions are never recognized by the state.
“Unfortunately, legislation that uses the ‘boogeyman’ of gay marriage in Virginia
has done quite well, and [2005] is an election year,” said Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington),
who said he expected the bill as a political maneuver. “With the redistricting
of the state and the tax changes, moderate Republicans face a real challenge
from the far right. They are running scared.”
Republicans in the Virginia Legislature did, however, score a significant victory
last year with the implementation of the Marriage Affirmation Act — the nation’s
first ban on civil unions — which went as far as to strictly curtail legal agreements
between people of the same sex.
Though the new law mobilized a large contingent of previously quiescent gay
Virginians to take to the streets in protest, those same newly minted activists
now face a double-whammy: overturning the Marriage Affirmation Act and blocking
the ratification of a marriage amendment.
Gay activists say they plan to go to Richmond in January prepared for not only
Cosgrove’s bill, but other copycat amendments.
“We have already launched efforts to stop this and we will not rest until this
hateful attempt is stopped,” said Joseph Price, an attorney and the board chair
of Equality Virginia, the state’s largest gay rights group, in a statement.
Price asserted that leaders and supporters of gay rights in Virginia have been
meeting over the past several months to strategize a comprehensive statewide
education campaign to combat the legislation.
“This amendment is no more than a political trick aimed at dividing the citizens
of Virginia,” he said. Equality Virginia has scheduled a lobbying day for Jan.
13, the day after the session begins.
But the opposition will also arrive primed — and riding the crest of Election
Day approval of same-sex marriage bans in 11 states.
The Virginia Family Foundation, a powerful social conservative lobbying organization,
and Del. Cosgrove did not return calls by press time.
Some moderate legislators and constitutional law scholars acknowledged the
watershed impact from the success of amendments in such states as Ohio, Michigan
and Oregon — the one state where gay-rights activists hoped to prevail. Many
begrudgingly admitted that, thanks to the nationwide support, anti-gay rights
groups have an unforeseen advantage.
“If it passed in Michigan and it passed in Oregon, then I believe that if it
gets on the ballot, it will surely pass in Virginia,” said Michael Klarman,
a professor of constitutional law at the University of Virginia. “This amendment
is all political. Every state must honor the full-faith and credit clause of
the U.S. Constitution, but states have long had an exception for public policy,
which virtually no court would ignore.”
Gov. Mark Warner has indicated that, while he does not support same-sex marriage,
he does not believe in extending restrictions beyond those already in place,
according to a spokesperson.
 ‘Unfortunately,
legislation that uses the boogeyman of gay marriage in Virginia has done
quite well,’ said trong>Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington), a gay member
of the state Assembly. |
Though the social climate in Virginia favors Cosgrove’s proposed amendment,
state protocol requires numerous steps for changes to the state ...
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