Just curious, what was “too strict” about the VA marriage amendment? I didn’t think it contained anything that most states don’t include in theirs.
Yes, from what I hear, Virginia has the deleterious “D.C.” effect in the northern areas that probably skews results from what is otherwise a very conservative state. I’m sure proximity to urban areas of Maryland doesn’t help, either. North Carolina does seem to be free from these influences, other than the centers of “education” in the larger urban areas. If these interlopers (many out-of-staters) could be discounted, I’m sure amendment passage would be in the high eighties or higher.
Virginia has the strictest amendment I know of, the wording is such that it not only bans “gay marriage” and any type of civil unions, but that it seems to make it go further, banning any contract between two unmarried people that “approximates” the effects of marriage. The Va AG had to make an opinion “stating that the amendment does not change the legal status of documents such as contracts, wills, or Advanced Medical Directives between unmarried people” because the wording was so broad and vague. For instance, two unmarried sisters living together might run into problems if the state decides that the amendment applies to them, to my understanding. And we all know that we can trust the state to do the right thing...
I think this supressed what a normal amendment would normally pass by, because it dipped into uneeded “big brotherism”. Even with northern Va, Va should have been in the mid 60% range or so if you look at the other states that passed pro-marriage amendments around the same time.
Freegards