Gov. Glenn Youngkin doesn’t seem to know that the state constitution ban on gay marriage supersedes a 2020 law, that or just wanted to leave a national TV audience with the impression that Virginia really is for lovers.
“In Virginia, we actually do protect same-sex marriage in Virginia. That’s the law in Virginia, and therefore as governor of Virginia, we protect same-sex marriage,” Youngkin said on a Sunday appearance on CBS “Face the Nation.”
More revealing as to his thinking was the comment that preceded this one. Host Robert Costa had asked Youngkin if he would take steps to protect same-sex marriage in Virginia. His answer:
“I believe that what the Supreme Court has done most recently is so consistent with what we know the Constitution stands for which is returning the rights to states to make these decisions, like Roe v. Wade, protecting, in fact, the right of lawmakers to make laws, not an executive branch to pass rules and regulations that overstep boundaries. This is what our Supreme Court has been so focused on.”
His first instinct was to praise the Supreme Court for “returning the rights to states to make these decisions.”
He said this moments after telling Costa that he will push for a ban on abortions in Virginia at 15 weeks, and hinting that he would want to go further if Republicans were to come out of the 2023 state elections with a majority in the House of Delegates and State Senate.
Virginia voters, in 2006, passed an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as being “between one man and one woman.”
The 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex unions nationwide, but the new working majority on the Court has signaled its intention to revisit judicial precedent in the privacy rights sphere, and same-sex marriage would seem to very much be in the crosshairs.
Virginia Democrats, in 2021, backed a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal the 2006 amendment, but House Republicans blocked the measure from getting on the ballot.
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Chris Graham
