West Virginia Lawmakers Consider Marriage Protection Amendment

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers will introduce and sponsor a Marriage Protection Amendment to the West Virginia state constitution during the upcoming legislative session. The lawmakers are introducing the bill for the sixth straight year.

“The Marriage Protection Amendment will constitutionally protect marriage as only between one man and one woman, preventing activist judges from radically redefining marriage in our state,” says West Virginia Family Foundation President Kevin McCoy. “The amendment will also preserve the unique legal benefits that are provided for this sacred institution and prohibit counterfeit relationships such as homosexual ‘civil unions’ and ‘domestic partner benefits,’ which are homosexual ‘marriage’ by another name.”

McCoy is calling on the West Virginia legislature to “stop obstructing the people’s right to join 30 other states in constitutionally protecting the definition of marriage as only between one man and one woman.”

The text of the amendment states: “Only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this state and its political subdivisions. This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for same-sex relationships to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities or effects of marriage.”

McCoy noted that the state Supreme Court of Appeals has already established so-called “sexual orientation” as a “protected class” in its Code of Judicial Conduct Canon. Three other state supreme courts—California, Iowa, and Massachusetts—cited their state’s adoption of identical policies as validating their rulings declaring so-called homosexual “marriage” a constitutional right.

“It has been six years since we first introduced the Marriage Protection Amendment, and in that short time, voters in 30 other states have adopted such amendments,” McCoy says. “The Legislature needs to stop making excuses and allow West Virginia voters the right to vote on this issue and the opportunity to join voters in neighboring states who have already protected marriage in their states.”