LGBT News Virginia Won’t Defend Gay Marriage Ban

Awesome! The west and the east is getting the idea. Now just gotta bring the south and the north into the equation

 

Wait... what happened in Utah then?

 

Utah recently legalized marriage equality, but it's pending on appeal trials because the governor of Utah wasn't so happy about it. Utah has one of the most right-wing stances on marriage equality, so all of us were pretty surprised.

 

Only 164 votes out of more than 2.2 million total votes cast (or 0.0074%) decided the Attorney General's election race in Virginia last year, with pro-gay Democrat Mark Herring defeating anti-gay Republican Mark Obenshain. That is why we have this victory in Virginia today. So go out and vote, elections have consequences!

Virginia was definitely the highlight of the 2013 elections, with Kookinelli and Obenshain (and the totally insane E.W. Jackson) all going down in defeat in what used to be a conservative Republican state.

The former capital of the Confederacy is rapidly liberalizing with the explosion of growth in Northern Virginia, and I think would likely be the first "Southern" state to ever legalize marriage equality without a federal court ruling forcing them to.

The wins in Virginia helped to make up for that gasbag winning re-election in New Jersey.

 

It honestly feels like "when" instead of "if" now. My local was reporting the story(one of my friends was actually covering the story) and they asked some people's opinions on it, and they agreed with Herring's decision. I was honestly surprised, I'm proud of my state for once.

 

Ken Cooch-not-that-kind-of-cooch-Cuccinelli still won't shut his mouth after his loss. The Cooch is busy screaming for Chris Christie to resign as the chair of the Republican Governors Association over Bridgegate. This coming from the man who wanted the Virginia Legislature to declare both then-Gov. Bob McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling "unfit for office" so as the Attorney General, Cuccinelli would be the next successor to the Governorship. As Rachel Maddow put it, he was trying to stage a Cucci Coup.



But as for gay marriage in Virginia, I'm thinking it's looking good. Since it won't be defended by the state, SCOTUS probably won't take the case, and if it's struck down in the lower courts, we win.

 

I don't think Buono had much of a chance at beating Christie anyways, but yes, this is a major win. I think by the end of the year, Virginia will be added to the list of states with equality, the first from the south. Whenever a state decides not to defend a law in court, most of the time, that law is more often than not struck down (Prop 8 in California).