Today is the ten-year anniversary of marriage equality in Virginia.
For most of our country’s history, same-sex marriage was impossible. For much of the start of the 21st century, couples traveled out of state to get married. Now, it is the law of the land, and it’s important to mark how significant that change has been.
As of 2022, the most recent data available, there are nearly 20,000 married same-sex couples in Virginia. Nearly 20,000 special days, anniversaries, and therefore nearly 40,000 people whose lives have been changed by the availability of this basic, fundamental, joyous right. Now, we must do everything we can to make sure that this right remains available and accessible here in Virginia.
As we saw in 2022 with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, decisions from the Supreme Court are not guaranteed.
One year after marriage equality came to Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that it must be legal nationwide. This was a tremendous day and decision, but for every June 26, 2015, there may be a June 24, 2022.
That’s why we are doing the hard work here at Equality Virginia – with our allies in the General Assembly – to safeguard marriage protections legislatively and push for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the freedom to marry for all Virginians.
Should Obergefell ever come back up in the future of the court, we will know that we have done everything we can to protect marriage in Virginia. If it is ever overturned and sent back to the states, our commonwealth will have its own guarantee. But we must do the work to put this amendment on the ballot in 2026 and then, voters must pass it.
