Virginia voters erase their gay marriage ban — with the same 57% that created it

Virginia voters on Tuesday approved Question 2, a constitutional amendment repealing the state's ban on same-sex marriage — passing it with 57 percent of the vote, the same share that enacted the ban nearly 20 years ago to the day.

The result, called with more than 95 percent of votes counted according to Decision Desk HQ, makes Virginia the fifth state to strip a same-sex marriage prohibition from its constitution, joining Nevada, California, Colorado, and Hawaii.

Tonight's victory belongs to generations of Virginians who organized, advocated and fought for equality, often without knowing whether they would live to see this day.— Narissa Ramen, executive director of Equality Virginia and campaign manager for Virginians for Marriage Equality

The amendment does more than delete old language. It replaces the 2006 provision — which defined marriage as a union between 'one man and one woman' and barred recognition of any relationship approximating marriage — with an affirmative guarantee: that 'marriage is one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness,' and that Virginia must recognize and treat equally any lawful marriage between two adults regardless of sex, gender, or race.

The ban being repealed, known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment, had not been legally enforceable since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges established a federal right to marry for same-sex couples. But advocates argued the dormant language posed a real risk: if the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell, the old Virginia ban would snap back into effect, stripping thousands of couples of hospital visitation rights, inheritance protections, and the ability to make medical decisions for a spouse.

That concern was not abstract. In 2022, after the court overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court 'should reconsider' other rulings, including Obergefell. In a recently published collection of speeches, Justice Samuel Alito called the Obergefell decision the 'decisive point in our nation's turn against religious liberty.' The Supreme Court declined last year to take up a case challenging the same-sex marriage ruling, but the public statements by two of its own justices kept the question alive for advocates.

We must work to carry this momentum across the country to ensure our marriages are protected in every state in the nation.— Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign

Getting Question 2 onto the ballot required years of legislative work. Under Virginia's rules, a constitutional amendment must pass the General Assembly in two separate sessions before voters can weigh in. The measure cleared both chambers in the 163rd and 164th General Assemblies — but with thin bipartisan support. Just eight Republicans in the 140-seat legislature voted for the amendment when it came up for final passage in January, according to The 19th.

Opposition was vocal. The Family Foundation of Virginia argued the amendment's language — separating 'sex' and 'gender' as distinct terms — would open the door to broader disputes over girls' sports and other gender-related policies. One conservative nonprofit claimed without evidence that the initiative would 'enshrine gender ideology' into the state constitution. Former Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who lost her bid for governor last year, ran a statewide bus tour urging voters to reject both Question 2 and a separate reproductive rights measure.

By separating the terms sex and gender in this constitution, they are implying that one can be a different gender than their sex, and what that does is open the door for the entire commonwealth, all its institutions, and businesses, and all the things that have been under dispute, girls' sports, etc, it opens the door for that battle to begin all over again.— Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia

Nationally, support for marriage equality remains high but has dipped from its 2022 peak. A June Gallup poll found 65 percent of Americans in favor, down from an all-time high of 71 percent, with falling Republican support driving the decline. In Virginia specifically, a 2024 survey found 68 percent of residents believed same-sex couples should be able to marry legally.

Virginia's relationship with marriage law has a long history of federal intervention. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on interracial marriage in the 1967 case Loving v. Virginia. The General Assembly repealed the remaining Racial Integrity Act in 1975. The new Question 2 language explicitly bars the state from denying a marriage license on the basis of race as well as sex and gender — a provision that reflects that history.

Why it matters — Virginia's vote removes a constitutional provision that could have revived a same-sex marriage ban if the Supreme Court ever overturns Obergefell — a scenario two sitting justices have publicly endorsed reconsidering.

Reported by 19thnews.org, en.wikipedia.org, ballotpedia.org