ELECTION 2025: Virginia delegates could decide the fate of same-sex marriage

ELECTION 2025: Virginia delegates could decide the fate of same-sex marriage

Sakina Kazmi, Contributing Writer

All 100 Virginia House of Delegates seats are up for election on Nov. 4. The elected members will vote on whether or not to amend the Virginia constitution to codify marriage rights in the Commonwealth as Supreme Court threats put federal protections in jeopardy.

Same-sex marriage is protected on the national level by the Supreme Court’s landmark decision over the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case. Over 10 years later, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis — who once refused to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple for religious reasons — petitioned in August for the high court to overturn the ruling. 

Should the majority Republican-appointed court revisit the case and overturn it, Virginia would revert to a 2006 ban on same-sex marriage written into its constitution. 

The Virginia General Assembly passed resolutions earlier this year to establish an affirmative right to marry regardless of sex, gender or race. To amend the constitution the body must pass the amendment a second time in 2026, after which it will be taken up by Virginians in a referendum the following November. 

Two amendments are on the table: House Joint Resolution 9 would codify the right to marriage, while Senate Joint Resolution 249 would repeal the previous law that defines marriage as only between men and women.

Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, introduced SJ 249. He was the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the Virginia General Assembly as a delegate in 2003. In 2011, he became the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Virginia Senate. 

“It’s obvious that democrats are supportive of LGBT rights and Republicans are a threat,” Ebbin said.

SJ249 passed with a vote of 58-34 — the 34 votes not in favor were all from Republican delegates.

“Democrats are supportive of LGBT rights, and the Republicans are a threat,” Ebbin said.

Neither the Democratic or Republican candidates for the 78th district, which includes VCU, responded to requests for comment, but incumbent Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, voted in favor of the amendments earlier this year. 

While the decision will fall to the General Assembly, the gubernatorial candidates have also made their stances on the issue clear. 

Democratic nominee and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s campaign platform notes her belief that no Virginian should face discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability or who they love. She voted to pass legislation for legal protections for same-sex and interracial couples as a congressional representative for Virginia’s seventh district.

Last year, Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears included a handwritten note of personal objection to House Bill 174, a bill prohibiting officials from denying marriage licenses based on sex, gender or race. She wrote that she was “morally opposed” to the bill’s content, according to Virginia Scope.

Richmond maintains a perfect score of 100 in the 2023 Municipal Equality Index, which evaluates municipalities based on their inclusivity in laws, policies and services for the LGBTQ community.

Equality Virginia, an organization that advocates for the LGBTQ+ community, made a Facebook post on Aug. 13 bringing attention to Davis’ petition.

“There’s no reason for the Supreme Court to take this case and unsettle something that has been so good for children, families and the larger society,” the post stated. 

The organization is encouraging Richmonders to vote in the upcoming election to elect a progressive majority in Virginia’s top political offices.

Third-year biomedical engineering student Isha Satapathy is the vice president of Queer Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian Students at VCU. She said legislative cases that support LGBTQ+ rights make their community feel secure. 

“The fact that gay marriage was accepted in some semblance of legal structure was very reassuring for a long time, and now that it [may be] taken away, it is very stressful,” Satapathy said. “Every law and SCOTUS decision is a plug in a dam, to stop the dam from bursting and eradicating all of [people’s] rights.”