The Virginian-Pilot
February 4, 2005
By the time this General Assembly session ends, lawmakers will almost certainly pass a constitutional amendment defining the institution of marriage as the union of a single man and a single woman.
You’d almost think there was an epidemic of misunderstanding about what Virginians mean when we use the word “marriage.”
But there isn’t, of course. We all know that “marriage,” in Virginia, means one man standing up with one woman before one official or one clergyman and exchanging vows. If there was any confusion, we already have several laws that spell it out unequivocally and bar Virginia from recognizing any other kind of union.
That clarity is not enough, apparently, for the ambitious lawmakers who have sponsored constitutional amendments aimed at ending the nonexistent misunderstanding. Claiming that the institution of marriage is under attack by homosexual bogeymen, lawmakers have proposed several amendments to the state constitution to define “marriage.”