Our Man In Arlington

Today, Virginia will take a remarkable step backwards in denying basic contractual rights to many citizens of Virginia – rights if they were taken away from you and me would fill us with incredulous outrage.

The new law smacks of the dark days of Virginia laws enforcing all manner discrimination against African-Americans – particularly laws that prohibited interracial marriages.

(Yes, Virginia, in the past laws purportedly upholding the “sanctity” of “traditional” marriage have often been used to discriminate against all manner of people, including those of races other than ours and even women!. Remember that until the suffragettes insisted that marriage be a civil union granting women contractual rights, women were considered chattel with very few legal rights in marriage.)

I am referring, of course, to today’s implementation of House Bill 751, an amendment to Virginia’s euphemistically titled Affirmation of Marriage Act that already prohibits same-sex marriages as well as “civil unions.”

H.B. 751 goes much further than this. It specifically prohibits any “partnership contract or other arrangements between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage.”

On the surface that just seems to ban same-sex “marriages” (whatever that term means). But wait! A U.S. General Accounting Office report lists over one thousand contractual relationships that could be related to the concept of marriage, including child custody arrangements, hospital visitation rights, insurance benefits, inheritance, property rights, and many other important contractual rights and benefits enjoyed by most of us, married or not, homosexual or not. This bill places in jeopardy the contractual rights enjoyed by any two people of the same sex who enter into almost any kind of contractual relationship.

While in Richmond earlier this week on unrelated business, I spoke with Tracy Thorn, a military veteran, a prominent lawyer, and a partner in a committed relationship. I hesitate to call it a “marriage” since that might bring down upon me the wrath of both the state and the church (not all of them by any means, though). But it looks like a real marriage to me in the best sense of the word. They are even expecting twins in September born by a surrogate mother. Doesn’t sound very “anti-family” to me.

Thorn said that many gays and lesbian couples have left Virginia or are seriously considering doing so. This brought back memories of my youth in Louisiana where interracial couples were required to leave the state (and many other states) if they wanted to avoid arrest and imprisonment.

Thorn went on to say that the new law denies the basic right of citizens to partner with others in the normal conduct of their daily life in a civilized and democratic society. He tied this to the American Dream to live in safety and comfort in a free country. The new law, he strongly believes, takes away the right and ability of gays and lesbians to control their own destiny. The American Dream to them is just that to them, a dream.

Arlington’s senator and delegates voted against H.B. 751. Governor Mark Warner and Lt. Governor Tim Kaine opposed it. The bill passed by a veto-proof margin, however, and Warner’s attempt to reach a compromise failed. So this repressive law goes into effect today. We should all be ashamed.

The battle is not over yet. Many legal scholars believe the law is unconstitutional and they will make every effort to get the courts to agree. And I expect there will be future legislative attempts to repeal the measure. I sincerely hope that all of these actions succeed.