My wife is going to be out of town for the election this year, so she dutifully applied for and received her absentee ballot. I was looking at the propaganda they send along with it (Apparently both the Democratic and the Republican parties are notified when you get an absentee ballot, because both sent her some literature). Have any of you read how far-reaching the proposed gay marriage ban in Virginia is? It doesn’t stop at banning gay marriage. It doesn’t even stop at banning civil unions. It bans anything that might resemble marriage, or carry some of the same benefits of marriage, for anyone who isn’t a married couple of opposite gender.
I’m not a lawyer, but I think a good lawyer could argue convincingly, based on the wording of this law, that I can’t enter into a verbal contract with a buddy to help him move some furniture in exchange for a case of beer. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
However, I think this may be a brilliant move on the part of those against a ban on gay marriage. They may have realized that there was no way they could avoid putting it on the ballot. Instead, they made it so far-reaching that even if it passes, it should be ruled unconstitutional. Of course, as shown by the second question on the ballot, that doesn’t mean much. The second question proposes removing something from the books that has, actually, been ruled unconstitutional. Shouldn’t that be automatic? I mean, as a citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I’m okay with allowing the VA government to remove unconstitutional laws from the books without asking my permission.