Appearing on the CBS Sunday program Face the Nation, Governor Glenn Youngkin was asked if he will take any steps to codify same-sex marriage in Virginia.
"We actually do protect same-sex marriage in Virginia. That's the law in Virginia," he stated.
But Virginia has a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.
"I was surprised to hear the governor lie on national television so blatantly," said state Senator Adam Ebbin, a Democrat from Alexandria.
Back in 2020, he had a bill repealing statutory prohibitions on same-sex marriages. A spokeswoman for the governor pointed to that bill, now law, as the reason Youngkin says same-sex marriage is protected.
Ebbin says that doesn't make sense. "The law does not protect same-sex marriage. Just because it's not illegal does not make it protected."
Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is still on the books, although it’s currently not enforceable because of a U. S. Supreme Court decision that at least one conservative justice says should be revisited. Earlier this year, Democrats tried to repeal that Virginia’s anti-gay-marriage amendment, but those efforts were defeated in party-line votes in a House subcommittee controlled by Republicans.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
