🏳️🌈🏺2-Gay in History🗳️🏳️🌈
This year we Virginians can repeal hate out of our constitution.
�Early voting runs through Oct. 31 & registration is open through the 23rd
Question 2 on Virginia's ballot, between abortion rights & felony voting rights, repeals the 20 year old Marshall-Newman Amendment, the ban on same-sex marriage in our state constitution.�Vote Yes
Here’s THE history (& mine, as this fight has followed my own life)
33 years ago: Hawaii’s Supreme Court hinted it might not be constitutional to ban gay-marriage
30 years ago: Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act by veto-proof margins, shortly after Hawaii amended its own constitution ban. (I was a kid just realizing I was gay)
Bush went further & tried to write a ban into the U.S. Constitution. The Federal Marriage Amendment fell far short of two-thirds required but they hoped it would help republicans at the polls that year. (It was the first presidential election I could vote in)
Same-sex marriage was already illegal here in Virginia, so Delegate Bob Marshall's went after civil unions & even private contracts between same-sex partners. Then he & Sen. Steve Newman moved to lock it into the constitution. The legislature passed it twice, & on Nov. 7, 2006, 57% of voters ratified it. (As a college student I marched in protest to the state capitol)
District federal courts struck the ban down 8 years later. (I was on the steps of the court house shortly after getting my marriage certificate)
& the Obergefell announcement made marriage equality national months later. (I was at the nation’s capitol for my honeymoon for when it was announced)
The language in that amendment is dead but stays on the books until we repeal it…
WHICH means it comes back to life instantly if the Obergefell decision of the Supreme Court is ever overturned—& it very well could be with this court
Question 2 on your ballot removes it for good & affirms that two legal adults may marry regardless of sex/gender/race
My recommendation: YES on all three. Laws shouldn't police our bodies & nothing should take away the right to vote
So VOTE
(This one is personal for me)
