In N. Va. Kickoff, 100 Launch Drive Vs. November Ballot Amendment

By Nicholas F. Benton

Exuding confidence that “the tide may be turning,” that there might be a unique historic opportunity to reverse a national trend, organizers gearing up to oppose passage of the Marshall-Newman Constitutional Amendment measure on the November ballot held a Northern Virginia kick-off rally Monday night that drew one hundred activists. Del. Jim Scott of Falls Church was one of three state delegates who spoke to the lively rally, urging on the organizing effort.

The proposed amendment to the Virginia state constitution was certified for the ballot by a vote of the state legislature in January. Labeled the “marriage amendment” by its Republican sponsors, it actually reaches far beyond the issue of marriage to make virtually all contractual relations, including business partnerships, between two non-married persons illegal. Moreover, it is superfluous as laws are already on the books in Virginia addressing the matter of marriage as limited to a man and a woman.

Democrats, including Scott, Del. Adam Ebbin and Del. Brian Moran speaking at Monday’s event, call the amendment a “Republican Get Out the Vote” ploy for November’s statewide elections. But, as Clare Guthrie Gastanaga, the campaign manager for the Commonwealth Coalition, a broad based alliance created to defeat the amendment, stated, given the shifting political trends in Virginia and nationally, “this could be the right moment in time to make history, to catch the wave.”

Similar measures have already passed in 19 other states, but Scott said Tuesday that if the trend could be reversed in Virginia, “It would set an enormous precedent for the entire nation.”

Gastanaga quoted former U.S. Senator and Virginia Governor Chuck Robb, who called the measure “a declaration of intolerance.” She noted that Republicans, themselves, are having a problem with it, citing the refusal of the New Kent County Republican committee to endorse its passage.

She pointed to polls that show 80% of Virginians think “there are more important things than this” which their elected officials should be focused on and that 57% of Virginians support some form of civil unions for persons of the same sex.

(The same night as the rally Monday, the 8 th District Committee of the Virginia Democratic Party, meeting at the Falls Church Community Center, adopted a resolution calling for the defeat of the amendment, and that was followed by a unanimous vote in support of the same position by the Falls Church City Democratic Committee the next night. The FCCDC also voted to forward its resolution to the Falls Church City Council).

Matt Foreman, the New York-based executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, spoke at Monday’s meeting, held in the sanctuary of the Metropolitan Community Church of Fairfax in downtown Fairfax City, saying that the amendment tells all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people that “you are not fully human,” and puts that into the state’s constitution.

“By creating the Bill of Rights, the founding fathers knew that issues pertaining to fundamental rights cannot be put to a popular vote,” he said. “In this case, it is an overwhelming majority pitted against a very small minority of persons whose fundamental rights those who cheat, steal and use our lives to raise money would deny us.”

“Most people,” he said, “don’t even think about this issue. They’re reaction is purely visceral. But even a 30 second face-to-face engagement about its implications flips two thirds of them.”

“Everyone who talks to a friend makes a difference,” Gastanaga said. “Silence is not an option for me as a straight person.”

Monday’s event was organized by Equality Fairfax, an affiliate of Equality Virginia, which can be reached at “equalityfairfax.org.”

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who has said publicly that he will vote against passage of the amendment, determined that the wording of the entire amendment, instead of an abbreviated version, will appear on the November ballot.

That wording includes the following, “The Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities or effects of marriage.”

As noted Monday, this language jeopardizes all contractual relations, including business partnerships and elderly persons sharing living quarters, between two persons who are not legally married, although proponents of the measure deny this.

The Marshall-Newman amendment is named for its Virginia House and Senate primary sponsors, Republicans Del. Robert G. Marshall of Manassas and Sen. Stephen D. Newman of Lynchburg. As required by Virginia law, the measure passed the Republican-controlled legislature in two successive years to qualify for inclusion on the general election ballot this November.