VA GOP Kills Bill To Strike Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

ABC News reports:

Republicans in the Virginia House defeated measures Tuesday that would have let voters decide whether to strip legally outdated language prohibiting gay marriage from the state Constitution and automatically restore the voting rights of felons who have served their terms.

Both proposed constitutional amendments passed the General Assembly last year when Democrats controlled the legislature. The measures needed to pass a second time this year in order to go to voter referendums in the fall, but they died in party-line votes in an early morning subcommittee.

Lobbyists for faith-based organizations argued against the marriage measure. Josh Hetzler [photo], counsel for the Family Foundation of Virginia, warned that the measure would open to the door to polygamy “and other types of marriage” because it did not include language limiting marriage to two people.

Read the full article.

GOP House members defeated measures today that would have let voters decide whether to strip legally outdated language prohibiting gay marriage from the state Constitution and automatically restore the voting rights of felons who have served their terms. https://t.co/xrnlyFdBjD

— Sarah Rankin (@sarah_rankin) February 8, 2022

Virginia Republicans showing us who they are: anti-equality, anti-voting rights https://t.co/Yc19Mjuu5w

— Peter Montgomery (@petemont) February 9, 2022