This Virginian Is For Equality

First we had a school board in Oklahoma, the Land of Children Of The Sally Kern, dismiss a couple's request to remove a book from the library because it had a :::gasp::: story of kids with two mommies [see What The Hell Is Wrong With Oklahoma?]. And now, we have some odd goings on up in Virginia!

It seems that David Englin, a Democrat from Alexandria, wants Virginia to repeal its constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. He says the amendment, which voters approved four years ago, is unfair to gay and lesbian couples, and he's trying, for the third time, to repeal it.

“If we are to take our founding values seriously, where we say that every human being deserves equal treatment under the law, then we cannot enshrine in the Constitution a policy that boils down to nothing but bigotry,” Englin said.

But, in the 2006 general election, 57 percent of voters, the majority of them apparently asshats, supported amending the Virginia Constitution to say: Marriage is a union between a man and a woman. It went on to say that Virginia will not recognize “a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage.”

Of course, feeling that sort of discrimination didn't go far enough, because it kept the hatred focused purely on gay folks living in Virginia, they also decided that Virginia will not recognize "another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.”

Englin has had enough with Virginia's Constitution containing discrimination, and he is once again sponsoring House Joint Resolution 55; it is similar to proposals he carried in 2007 and 2009. Neither of those proposals got much attention, but Englin isn't giving up.

With his help, Virginia may once again be able to proudly state: Virginia is for lovers.

And mean it.