Redundant Discrimination
November 7th, 2006 | by jg3 |This text by the Virginia State Board of Elections was in a pamphlet which I picked up at my polling place this morning. You can download the entire .pdf file from the Board of Elections site and read it yourself, if you want to.
It says:
The Constitution does not define marriage. Under current statutory law in Virginia, persons who marry must have a license and be married by a … person authorized by law to perform marriages. Present law prohibits marriages between certain individuals. For example, …between couples of the same sex.
The document goes on to explain in detail that the existing laws (yes, plural) which explicitly and unambiguiously makes marriage between persons of the same sex illegal in Virginia. It is just crazy to me that such an addition to the state constitution would be considered necessary, even if it were well worded enough not to raise questions about the rights of all relationships between consenting adults.
Of course, polls taken last month and reported in the Washington Post show that the measure stands a very good chance of passing and our commonwealth constitution being amended to specifically (well, not specifically enough) deny rights to residents.
Filed under: Politics, Real Life
2 Responses to “Redundant Discrimination”
By mijoy on Nov 7, 2006 | Reply
I think the law isn’t necessarily to once again deny marriage between same-sex couples. I believe what they are trying to do is to prohibit VA from recognizing same-sex marriage from a legal standpoint. This would include people that get married outside of Virginia and then move here. In other words, they would not be entitled to “married” rights — even if they got married outside of Virginia.
By earlax on Nov 8, 2006 | Reply
No. Read the .pdf. That has been the law since 1997 in Virginia.
The issue we voted on would do two things:
1) Get the anti-gay people to the polls. 2) Put the language into the state bill of rights.
This addition to the “Bill of Rights” would require a new name for that section of the state constitution. With the suggested language it would no longer be a document describing the basic rights and freedoms for all Virginians, it would begin to restrict some behaviors also. That’s a new direction in our little chunk of “the land of the free.”