CHARLESTON — Evangelical Christian groups continued their drive Tuesday to convince West Virginia lawmakers to allow voters to define marriage in the state constitution as being between one woman and one man.
The state Family Policy Council and the national Alliance Defense Fund both addressed a joint legislative committee studying the issue. So did foes of their proposed amendment and a law professor considered an authority on West Virginia’s constitution.
Council President Jeremy Dys said his group’s in-state polling found that a growing majority favors his group’s definition of marriage. He urged lawmakers to get out of their way.
“There is no legitimate reason not to let the people decide the definition of marriage,” said Dys, a lawyer. “Representative democracy means listening to your constituents when they ask to govern themselves.”
But opponents cast the amendment campaign as an attempt at tyranny of the majority.
“No one’s rights are safe if anyone’s rights can be taken away by the whim of popular opinion,” said Seth DeStefano of the American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia chapter.
Dys’ council blitzed voters during the 2009 regular session with ads and glossy mailers, urging them to press their lawmakers to advance the legislation necessary for a special election. But some House and Senate Democratic leaders questioned whether the drive amounted to a partisan power play, as the council enlisted GOP consulting firms for its campaign.
House Majority Whip Mike Caputo, D-Marion, noted that one of the council’s Republican-conducted phone polls singled him out, but not his district’s two other members.
“I don’t know who finances your group, but they really need to know that you never even came to me to ask me for my position before you started asking people in my district to start calling me,” Caputo told Dys.
Stephen Skinner, president of Fairness West Virginia, contrasted the amendment push with the state’s ongoing “Come Home to West Virginia” campaign aimed at departed natives. His group advocates for gay, bisexual and transgender West Virginians.
“I think what we’re here to talk about today, essentially, is whether there should be an asterisk” with that slogan, he said. “Should it be, ‘Come home, unless you are gay or lesbian, because we don’t really want you’?”
Skinner, a lawyer who told the committee he is gay, also cited a 2005 University of California-Los Angeles study that estimated there are same-sex couples in each of West Virginia’s 55 counties.
Ministers and gay advocates alike packed the committee room and listened quietly throughout the two-hour hearing. The civil tone continued for more than a half-hour afterward, with advocates from both sides lingering to discuss and debate.
West Virginia does not recognize same-sex marriages granted elsewhere, under a 2000 law that also requires all marriage license applications to state that “marriage is designed to be a loving and lifelong union between a woman and a man.”
But Dys and Alliance Defense Fund counsel Jordan Lorence both argued that the statute remains vulnerable to a lawsuit. Lorence targeted the sort of stance taken by Gov. Joe Manchin. While endorsing marriage as being between a man and a woman, the Democratic governor has questioned the need for a constitutional amendment absent any pending challenge.
“That is like saying you don’t need a vaccination program for swine flu because we haven’t had an epidemic yet,” Lorence said.
West Virginia University law professor Bob Bastress counted 122 attempts by voters to amend the state constitution ratified in 1872, with 73 of them succeeding. But he added that amendments to its Bill of Rights have been rare and have tended to expand rights, with the possible exception of prohibition in 1912.
While arguing that the proposed amendment has been mislabeled as a gay marriage ban, Lorence said state constitutions can restrict rights. He cited how states reserve voting for residents and that five previously banned polygamy.
Committee members fell on both sides of the question. Delegate John Frazier, D-Mercer, asked Skinner whether voting for allowing the amendment would make him a bigot. A former circuit judge, Frazier also questioned how the amendment could restrict rights that don’t exist.
Citing Lorence’s acknowledged lack of knowledge on state divorce rates, Delegate Danny Wells, D-Kanawha, suggested his group focus on that instead. West Virginia has the country’s fourth-highest divorce rate, per-capita, according to 2007 figures from the National Vital Statistics System.
Six states allow same-sex marriage, while 30 have amended their constitutions in ways that forbid them.
West Virginia
Lawmakers get both sides on gay marriage
- West Virginia
-
-
Workers going to court over tech jobs
Long-simmering concerns among West Virginia’s state employees about public technology jobs have boiled over into a legal challenge.
-
DEP faces challenge of gas well rush
The state’s top environmental official says West Virginia will likely need a two-tiered regulatory system to properly permit and monitor the proliferation of Marcellus shale and other horizontally drilled gas wells.
-
Nike to alter WVU uniform promotional ad
After angry environmentalists objected to a Nike promotional ad for a new West Virginia University football uniform, the athletic apparel giant said Thursday it will modify a graphic depicting a mountaintop removal mine.
Nike issued a statement through the university, repeating what the school had said earlier in the day: The new black and white Pro Combat uniform was designed to honor the heritage of coal mining and 29 men killed in the April explosion at Upper Big Branch mine. -
Swing sets eliminated at some schools
Playground swings, a source of comfort and joy for schoolchildren for generations, are getting the heave-ho at elementary schools in Cabell County.
The swing sets are being removed starting this fall due to recent lawsuits and cost concerns over properly maintaining the protective barriers around them, Cabell County schools safety manager Tim Stewart said Wednesday. -
Turnout low as state picks Senate nominees
It will be a three-way race for the late Robert C. Byrd’s U.S. Senate seat in November as voters decided to pit Democrat Gov. Joe Manchin against Republican John Raese and Mountain Party’s Jesse Johnson.
The three will appear on the Nov. 2 general election ballot following light voter turnout for the special primary prompted by Byrd’s death two months prior. -
Manchin leads fundraising parade
Heading into Saturday’s special primary, Gov. Joe Manchin has attracted most of the nearly $2 million amassed by the 14 candidates seeking the late Robert C. Byrd’s U.S. Senate seat.
Manchin raised nearly $1.2 million in the month since entering the race July 20. The energy sector, particularly coal and coal-burning utilities, provided close to 30 percent of those funds. -
Byrd’s papers transferred to center at Shepherd
The late Robert C. Byrd’s U.S. Senate offices have been cleaned out and thousands of documents representing a political career spanning six decades will be prepared for display in West Virginia.
On Thursday a collection of private papers, 1,300 framed plaques, awards, photographs, scrapbooks, political records and other items arrived at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University. -
State gets serious about sports concussions
New regulations designed to protect student athletes from sports-related concussions are expected to take the guesswork out of whether players should be required to sit out the rest of the game.
The Secondary School Activities Commission regulation requires that athletes suspected of suffering a head injury be evaluated immediately by a health professional. -
Federal spending among forum topics
Several candidates running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Robert C. Byrd say they would support a balanced budget amendment to bring federal spending under control.
Early voting started Friday for the Aug. 28 special primary. -
Massey pollution case gets court date
Hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who claim Massey Energy Co. poisoned their wells and made them sick by pumping coal slurry underground will get their day in court next year — and a chance to settle the case this fall.
- More West Virginia Headlines
-
Workers going to court over tech jobs
