Republicans refuse to strike down marriage amendment for the most offensive reason possible
Virginia's constitutional ban on same-sex marriages was deemed unconstitutional years ago, but the state GOP isn't finished spewing out disgusting stereotypes.
By Bil Browning
While legislation passed in both chambers of the Virginia legislature last year that would repeal the state’s constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages, with Republicans in control of the House, the effort appears to have come to a sputtering halt. A House subcommittee voted down the measure on Tuesday that would have advanced the repeal to the ballot box for voters to decide.
Republican delegates say they don’t like the language that would replace the ban in the amendment, saying that marriage is “inherent in the liberty of persons,” will lead to polygamy and child marriages. The stereotypes of LGBTQ people as promiscuous and dangerous to children live on in the GOP.
While marriage equality was legalized nationwide in 2015, Republicans in several states have either slow-walked or refused to repeal constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriages.
To repeal a constitutional amendment in Virginia, legislation must pass through both chambers twice and be approved by voters.
Virginia’s repeal language passed both chambers in the last General Assembly when controlled by Democrats, but Republicans took the House and governor’s office in the last election after running on a platform that demonized transgender and Black Americans.
“Our Marshall-Newman Amendment was no longer enforceable,” Del. Mark D. Sickles (D), the sponsor of the legislation to repeal the amendment, said. “Yet it sits in its utter ugliness in our constitution.”
Sickles bill would replace the ban with language that reads, “The right to marry is a fundamental right, inherent in the liberty of persons, and marriage is one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness.”
But Republicans are throwing up faux concerns about polygamy and child marriage as a red herring to appeal to the religious right and conservative extremists. Democrats pushed a ban on child marriage through the legislature in 2016; until then children as young as 13 could get married in the state. Only Republicans opposed the ban on forced marriages and child trafficking.
Republican legislators nationwide have refused to ban child marriages, often using anti-LGBTQ reasoning to do so.
“Polygamy is against the law in Virginia,” Sickles said. Republicans “admitted to me afterward that they wouldn’t support this … regardless of that language. They make this stuff up to make what they’re doing seem more reasonable.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin ( R) won the last election by constantly decrying “critical race theory” and teaching children about America’s history of racism. He also joined forces with the religious right to demonize transgender people by accusing them of trying to enter restrooms that align with their gender identity for nefarious reasons and attempting to ban transgender children from playing school sports.
The GOP has also played a large role in recent attacks on school board members, teachers, administrators, and school librarians; they’ve burned books, banned curriculum topics, and passed laws that would make it illegal for teachers to mention gay people in the classroom.
Virginia rejects proposals for voting rights, gay marriage
Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Virginia lawmakers decided Tuesday against letting voters decide whether to remove language barring same-sex marriage from the state's constitution or giving voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.
A House of Delegates subcommittee voted 5-4 against the constitutional amendment, which would have given the right to vote to convicted felons who have completed their sentences.
The panel also voted 6-4 to reject a proposed amendment that would remove language baring same-sex marriage from the state constitution.
The measure proposed removing language in the constitution referring to marriage as only a union between a man and woman, instead calling it a fundamental right for all
Had they passed, the measures would have gone to voter referendums in the fall.
The votes fell along partisan lines in the Republican-controlled subcommittee.
Both measures passed through the state's General Assembly last year under a Democrat-controlled legislature. They needed to pass a second time in order to get to the voter referendum stage. Republicans now hold a slim margin in the House.
Spokespeople from more than 12 advocacy groups spoke in favor of the voting measure. No one spoke in opposition.
There was also little debate in the subcommittee.
The state's former Democratic governor called the outcome "shameful
"Virginians who have paid their debt to society deserve to have their voices heard at the ballot box. We won't stop fighting until we fully reverse this Jim Crow era law and make restoration of voting rights automatic," tweeted former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
No comments:
Post a Comment