Vote ‘no’ on the so-called “marriage amendment.”
1) It’s wrong to amend the Bill of Rights to explicitly take rights away from anyone.
2) The amendment is unnecessary; same sex marriage is already illegal in Virginia.
3) It’s bad for business, potentially jeopardizing fundamental contract law. Some of Northern Virginia's top business leaders have spoken out against it, as has the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce.
4) The General Assembly recently acted to allow private companies to offer domestic partner benefits because big firms that located here wanted to be able to offer the same benefits they can offer in other states. That will be in jeopardy if this amendment passes.
5) The wording is loaded with unintended consequences.
6) This amendment codifies bigotry. It is reminiscent of before the Supreme Court ruled in the 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, when Virginia law outlawed interracial marriage.
7) It does nothing to protect traditional marriage. Traditional marriage is mostly threatened by infidelity, domestic abuse and by divorce. Want to protect marriage? Pass laws that require counseling and a longer waiting period before marriage. Include education on anger management and domestic abuse in high school. Require counseling and a longer waiting period before executing a divorce.
8) This amendment emboldens those who would act out based on prejudice.
9) Using Ohio’s experiences as a predictor, passage of this law will undermine Virginia’s laws against domestic violence, which now protect domestic partners including opposite-sex domestic partners.
10) The marriage amendment is a cynical attempt to get conservative voters to the polls.
Be sure to read the second paragraph of the proposed amendment. It just goes too far:
“This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage."
— Mary Kimm