Virginia is for all lovers: Youngkin signs bill protecting marriage equality
Virginia recently became the seventeenth state to codify protections for same-sex marriage equality. Photo by Mia Moreno.
Alyssa Hutton, Contributing Writer
Governor Glenn Youngkin signed a bill protecting same-sex marriage on March 9.
Del. Rozia Henson, D-Prince William, introduced House Bill 174, which disallows marriage licenses to be denied based on the sex, gender or race of the applicants. Religious organizations and clergy members may still refuse to perform a marriage ceremony.
Virginia will be the seventeenth state to add this type of marriage equality to its state code, according to a statement Henson released on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Henson is the first openly gay Black man elected to Virginia’s legislature, according to a Facebook post by the Democratic Party.
The bill passed both chambers — mostly following party lines — and will go into effect July 1.
Virginia’s Constitution currently states that the only valid form of marriage is between one man and one woman.
The signing of this bill will ease concerns for Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning abortion rights in 2022 and comments Justice Clarence Thomas left in the concurring statement, Henson stated.
The justices “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell,” Thomas said in the concurring statement.
The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 in the Obergefell v. Hodges case. HB 174 codifies this ruling in Virginia if the Supreme Court reconsiders the case.
Nia Walker, a health chair for the Triangle Club at VCU, an organization that aims to create a safe space on campus and in Richmond for queer people, said the passing of this bill is huge for the LGBTQ+ community.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I don’t want to undermine how significant this is,” Walker said. “It’s just one small step to the whole big picture we’re trying to achieve.”
The bill being signed has given Walker some comfort, she said.
“With Youngkin being in office, there are definitely a lot of things he has done against our community and a lot of actions he’s had against our community,” Walker said.
The Virginia Department of Education’s Model Policies were updated in July 2023 under Youngkin’s administration.
The 2021 Model Policies were created under former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, which “disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students, including transgender students,” according to the 2023 Model Policies.
“Practices such as compelling others to use preferred pronouns is premised on the ideological belief that gender is a matter of personal choice or subjective experience, not sex,” according to the policy’s guidelines.
The guidelines separate students in areas such as extracurriculars and athletics based on their biological sex, not gender identity.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed two lawsuits against the DOE in February, according to a press release by the ACLU. The lawsuits are on behalf of two transgender students who are challenging the 2023 Model Policies.
Katie Kerrigan, a senior majoring in English, philosophy and political science, said Youngkin signing this bill comes as a surprise.
“It’s countered to pretty much everything I’ve seen from his politics so far as a governor,” Kerrigan said. “Especially with where he’s stood on any sort of issues regarding gay rights and queer rights.”
Jenna Abed, a sophomore majoring in biology, said as a Muslim who grew up in the United States, her religious beliefs can contradict her American beliefs.
“I think in a country like the U.S. that is very ‘freedom to do anything,’ basically, you should have the freedom to marry anyone you want,” Abed said.
