Leesburg Today
August 25, 2006
By Charlie Jackson
Battle lines have been drawn in Loudoun County and across the commonwealth by the opposing sides in the battle over gay marriage.
Defeating the amendment would make history, according to David Weintraub, president of Equality Loudoun, the local arm of Commonwealth Coalitions which is set to fight attempts from conservatives to alter the state’s Bill of Rights to deny marriage to same-sex couples – though there already is state law that forbids such an act.
But Weintraub sees the movement as a way to write discrimination into the state constitution.
“They are asking people to put language in the bill of rights to make all unmarried Virginians second class citizens,” Weintraub said.
And that’s going to be the crux of the fight in the commonwealth – a battle over the language of and exactly what passing the referendum would mean.