CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – More than 11 years after the first same-sex couples were married in Charlottesville, the General Assembly is poised to quickly make the right for consenting adults to marry one of four new amendments to the state constitution being pushed through both Democratic controlled chambers of the General Assembly.
The amendments also include the automatic restoration of voting rights to felons who have completed their time served, the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, and the ability to temporarily redraw Virginia’s Congressional districts with voter approval in response to Texas’ mid-decade redistricting.
Soon-to-be ex-northern Virginia Delegate and soon-to-be state Finance Secretary Mark Sickles is one of the patrons of the marriage amendment.
“I have the happiness amendment,” Sickles told the House Privileges and Elections Committee Wednesday. “We’ve got people on both sides who’ve supported marriage equality, we’ve had it realistically and legally for 11 years and nobody’s straight marriage has been harmed by it.”
Todd Gathje with the Family Foundation opposed the repeal saying, “Marriage is the union of two biological opposites, a male and a female, man and woman, for the purpose of procreation and raising children.”
Virginia’s status as the only state in the union that does not automatically restore voting rights after someone who has committed a felony has served their time is the impetus for Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker’s (D-Alexandria) amendment.
She said the current system of the Governor making the sole decision on which felons get their right restored is arbitrary and needs to change.
Opponents argued that rights should not be restored to felons who have not completed paying restitution for their crimes.
House Majority Leader Charneille Herring (D-Alexandria) is patron of the reproductive rights amendment.
Del. Jay Leftwich (R-Chesapeake) questioned whether the amendment would eliminate requirements for parental notification for minors, or totally pre-empt and call into state code regulation third trimester abortions.
Leftwich said he’s been practicing law for 30 years and can see cases that might be constructed challenging code provisions.
“I think those state codes that prevent that will be challenged and the court will have no choice but to interpret this amendment that way and rule in that manner,” Leftwich opined.
Herring said, “We are not touching the code and the law stands the way that it is.”
“And it’s up to the legislature to decide if they want to change anything, so what is required right now which was read by the delegate will still be required if this constitutional amendment should pass,” Herring said.
An amendment to allow a temporary mid-decade redrawing of Virginia’s Congressional districts in response to Texas’ mid-decade remapping also continues to move.
Virginia resident Alex Sprague told the committee in public comment he is an opponent of partisan gerrymandering but has allowed himself to support this amendment.
“I’m very much going to vote ‘Yes’ on this should it reach my ballot,” he said. “And to everyone saying ‘Oh, why are you silencing us like this?’ it serves you right for silencing us in Texas and possibly Florida.”
However, Steve Rossie with the Family Foundation noted Texas had a legal ruling it had to accommodate that Virginia did not, “The appellate court ruling said they had ‘coalition districts’ which the court called unconstitutional.”
“Virginia no such problem, has no ‘coalition districts.’ Our Congressional districts are uncontroversial in that way and this amendment is unnecessary,” Rossie said.
The amendments passed the House immediately after Privileges and Elections sent them to the floor.
In the Senate, the four amendments have advanced to their third and final reading before a vote is taken.
