Virginia anti-gay law among the nation's most restrictive

By Justin Bergman
The Associated Press

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RICHMOND, Va. — Gay activists in Virginia are toying with a new motto for the state: "Virginia is for lovers. Some restrictions apply."

Gays and lesbians are angry and even threatening to leave the state over a new law that will prohibit civil unions and could interfere with contracts between same-sex couples.

Some legal experts call it the most restrictive anti-gay law in the nation.

"I won't buy a home in Virginia. I'm done," said Bo Shuff, a 30-year-old gay-rights activist who has rented in the Washington suburb of Arlington the past two years.

Edna Johnston, a lesbian who has scuttled plans to move her historic-preservation consulting business from Washington to northern Virginia, said, "It's not a signal, it's a message: 'You're not welcome."'

The new law is an amendment to the state's 1997 Affirmation of Marriage Act, which prohibits gay marriages. The amendment extends that ban to civil unions, partnership contracts and other "arrangements between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage."

Virginia's attorney general and other supporters say the law provides a needed safeguard for the institution of marriage.

But some legal experts say the law is so vague that it could interfere with powers of attorney, wills, medical directives, child custody and property arrangements, and joint bank accounts.

"For the Virginia Legislature to go as far as they did, knowing that this is probably unconstitutional, to me it is a political statement," said Henry Fradella, a law professor at the College of New Jersey who specializes in gay-rights law. "I have not seen anything quite so radical."
 
The bill's sponsor, Delegate Robert Marshall, a Republican, said the law is aimed at preventing same-sex couples from acquiring the benefits of marriage through other means.

One state, Massachusetts, has legalized gay marriage. Civil unions are legal in Vermont, and California and Hawaii have domestic-partnership laws that provide certain legal rights to gay relationships. New Jersey has a partnership law taking effect July 1.

"Civil union is a proxy for marriage, and domestic partnership is a proxy for civil unions," Marshall said.

Conservative groups such as the Family Foundation have praised the law, which passed the GOP-controlled Legislature by a veto-proof margin after Democratic Gov. Mark Warner tried to make it less restrictive.

Warner said the bill interferes with people's right to enter contracts and violates the 14th Amendment guarantee to due process and equal protection.

"I think the courts will show that it's unconstitutional," Warner said. "This bill went way beyond gay marriage and civil unions."

The state's leading gay-rights organization, Equality Virginia, is discussing options for challenging the law, which takes effect July 1. But some gays say the piling on of anti-gay legislation is starting to wear them down.

Virginia is the only state where companies not large enough to underwrite their own insurance policies are prohibited from offering domestic-partner benefits. The state also bans joint adoptions by same-sex couples and refuses to list the names of same-sex couples from other states on the birth certificates of children adopted here.

Lawmakers also shot down attempts this year to rewrite the state's anti-sodomy law to conform with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Texas law against gay sex.

Barry Parsons, a 39-year-old lawyer, left Virginia for Washington in 1999 so he and his partner of 12 years could adopt a baby. He said Virginia could suffer economically if more professional gays move out.

"I went to law school in Virginia and the state of Virginia invested a substantial amount of money in my education," Parsons said. "After four years I left and that's when my income started to pick up. Now all my taxes are going to D.C."