Virginia thinks the idea is sound

By Kathleen Rhodes
CNSNews.com Correspondent
March 18, 2005

(CNSNews.com) - The Virginia House of Delegates approved a constitutional
amendment this week that would ban homosexual marriage. Now homosexual
advocates claim that Virginia is producing more anti-homosexual legislation
than most other states.

"The law that is most egregious is the Marriage Affirmation Act (House Bill
751). It passed last year... and it bans pretty much any gay relationship
and it also bans private contracts between couples," said Joe Crea, former
staff writer for the Washington Blade. "But I suspect that it's not going to
stand in a court of law."

Crea was one of the panelists who evaluated recent bills they consider to be
detrimental to homosexuals during a panel discussion, entitled "Virginia's
War on Homosexuals?" at the American University's Washington College of Law
Thursday.

The bill states that "a civil union, partnership contract or other
arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the
privileges or obligations of marriage is prohibited and that such an
arrangement entered into in another state or jurisdiction is void in
Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby are void and
unenforceable."

American University law professor Jane Dolkart, who specializes in gender
and sexuality, said Virginia is the only state that has a law banning
private partnership contracts for homosexuals. "I am quite certain that it
is unconstitutional ... to ban contracts (between homosexuals)," she added.

"There are other states that have passed constitutional amendments that
cover not just same-sex marriage but domestic partnerships as well. I admit
that this legislation seems to go well beyond," said Dolkart. "It's so vague
that it's hard to know how to interpret it."

The bill does not outright ban other arrangements or partnership agreements,
the panelists admitted, but according to openly homosexual Virginia Delegate
Adam Ebbin, "The big question in Virginia is how will it be appropriated if
it is used to challenge" an existing legal contract.

Ebbin said "The scariest [piece of legislation] to me was the proposal that
didn't pass, that would have outlawed gay adoption in Virginia." He was
referring to House Bill 2921, which was passed in the House and was referred
to a Senate Subcommittee.

Ebbin said the proposal "came before a subcommittee I was on, and it was
drastically watered down to merely require information on whether someone is
known to currently participate in voluntary homosexual activity, which
sounds pretty frightening and intrusive."

Literally, the bill states, "No person under this statute may adopt if that
person is a homosexual" and requires that the circuit court inquire as to
whether the potential parents "engage in current voluntary homosexual
activity."

"I thought that was a new level," Ebbin added.

The panelists also said there was a measure proposed that would allow school
boards to ban "gay/straight alliances" at public schools.

According to the "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer
Encyclopedia" website, a gay/straight alliance" is "defined as a youth-led,
school- or community-based group that provides a safe, welcoming, and
affirming physical and emotional space for glbtq students, as well as those
who are perceived" as such, "those who are questioning their sexual
orientation and/or gender identity, children from glbtq families, and
heterosexual students who want to be allies of their glbtq peers."

Dolkart said that this sort of thing would be normally be protected under
the Federal Equal Access Act, which allows most non-curriculum, special
interest student groups to assemble in U.S. high schools.

"The bottom line is, if you [lend] your facilities to the public, you must
allow all points of view to be represented. If you have extra-curricular
activities in the school, then you have to allow gay/straight alliances,"
said Dolkart.

The courts in Virginia have also been unfavorable to homosexuals, Dolkart
said. "Virginia pretty much will not grant custody to a lesbian parent," she
said, adding that "they have gone so far as to deny custody to a lesbian
parent in favor of her parent."

In Virginia, Dolkart added, "They still have a sodomy law on the books that
is on its face unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court decision (in
Lawrence vs. Texas)."

She asked "Why Virginia? There are other states that are at least, if not
more conservative than Virginia that have done many bad things, but I don't
think I have ever seen ... as much [anti-homosexual] legislation in one
state as here."

"One thing is it's an election year in Virginia," Ebbin said, in an attempt
to explain.
He indicated that because of the political season, legislators would try to
appear more conservative to win votes, and that this would put homosexuals
at a disadvantage.

"The challenge in most districts is to be conservative enough that if you're
gonna have an election challenge, in many cases, you're concern is winning a
Republican primary against conservatives," Ebbin said.

William J. Howell, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates (28th
District), dismissed the idea that the Virginia Legislature was conducting a
"war on homosexuals."

"I would disagree with that," Howell told the Cybercast News Service
Thursday. "I think all the legislature is trying to do is to make the laws
clear and follow the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the constituents
in the Commonwealth."

Howell said the constitutional amendment to restrict marriage to one man and
one woman was necessary. "I think the concern that they have in the
legislature is that we have statutes already on the books," he claimed, "
but they may be superceded by other states' laws ... so we feel it's
important to have it in our constitution."

If the General Assembly approves the amendment during the 2006 legislative
session, it will go before Virginia voters in the 2006 mid-term elections.

Howell had no opinion about the issue of "gay/straight alliances" being
allowed in public schools, saying, "I have no idea what a gay/straight
alliance is to begin with and so I couldn't tell you whether I think we
should have them in schools or not."

Crea and Ebbin said a number of homosexual couples have left the state
because they see Virginia law as unfriendly to homosexuals.

(Cybercast News Service Managing Editor David Thibault contributed to this
article.)

Sounds like a load of horse hockey to me.