Amending Virginia’s Constitution

If voters approve the three amendments on the ballot this fall, Virginia’s constitution will codify the rights of same-sex marriage, abortion access, and voting for released felons. The “Remove Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban Amendment” will strike an earlier amendment establishing that “only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth.” Virginia’s then Republican-controlled legislature passed that ban in 2004, and voters approved it in 2006. A lot has changed in the two decades since. According to Gallup, support for same-sex marriage reached 71% in 2023. In 2015, the Supreme Court concluded “that same-sex couples may exercise the right to marry” because “the reasons marriage is fundamental under the Constitution apply with equal force to same-sex couples.” The Obergefell decision nullified gay marriage bans nationally, a year after Virginia’s ban had been struck down by a lower court. The new amendment would also prohibit…