Del. Mark Levine: The Combo of Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court and Virginia Passing Amendment 1 Could Prove Disastrous For LGBT Equality

by Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria/Arlington)

Here’s what I fear:

This sequence of events is quite plausible:

1. Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed.
2. The US Congress fails to expand the Supreme Court.
3. Justice Barrett and her four colleagues overturn marriage equality. Says it has no basis in US Constitution.
4. Under Marshall-Newman Amendment, the Virginia Constitution currently compels forcible divorce of all Virginia same-sex couples. (Dems in power can’t stop it. Constitutions trump laws.)
5. I put in a constitutional amendment to change Virginia Constitution in 2021 to require marriage equality. It passes the 2021 session. But it must pass again in 2022 by both legislature and voters to become part of the Virginia Constitution.
6. Virginia voters approve Amendment 1 this fall.
7. Amendment 1 gives Republicans free rein to ask the Virginia Supreme Court to impose a Republican-favorable gerrymander and they do so.
8. Dems win the majority of votes in November 2021 but, due to the R gerrymander allowed by Amendment 1, we lose a majority in the House of Delegates.
9. The new R-led Virginia House rejects my constitutional amendment to remove anti-gay bias from Virginia Constitution. They leave in permanent ban on marriage equality, along with permanent gerrymander in their favor. They repeal our anti-gerrymandering law (HB1255).
10. Same-sex couples, both married and those wanting to marry, are forever doomed. And many leave Virginia as an inhospitable place to work and live.

Think it’s unlikely? Think again. Each of these steps may well occur.

Please vote NO on Amendment 1 if you care at all about Rainbow civil rights.

Please vote NO on Amendment 1 if you care at all about racial civil rights.

Please vote NO on Amendment 1 if you don’t believe legislators should be drawing district lines. Support our alternative of an independent nonpartisan citizens commission.

Please vote NO on Amendment 1 if you want to finally see the scourge of gerrymandering removed from Virginia.

And don’t say Cassandra didn’t warn you!