Another meaningless promise (aka, "pandering") by Brian Moran, this time dissected by Larry Sabato in the Washington Blade:Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said in a statement to the Blade this week that, “the chances of this pledge being fulfilled are quite small.”Now, I fully understand the burning desire of many people - gay and straight alike (myself included in the latter category) - to repeal this abomination that was rammed into George Mason's constitution in 2006. And I want to get this abomination repealed as rapidly as possible. But in order to do that, the fact is - as I've explained many times - we have to completely change the General Assembly, not just from the flat-earth Republicans who control the House of Delegates, but also from "conservative Democrats" (like Creigh Deeds, by the way), who also have consistently voted to place discriminatory language against the LGBT community in Virginia's constitution. As Larry Sabato says, that could take years, possibly be "a long way off in the future."
He noted that for a governor taking office in January 2010, the soonest that the referendum could happen would be November 2012, during the presidential election, or November 2013, when the governor’s successor would be elected.
Sabato also noted that the governor would have to reverse the 57 percent majority among the electorate who approved the amendment.
“It’s highly unlikely, even if a governor made it the highest priority in his legislative agenda — which is also extremely unlikely to be the case,” he said. “There may well come a day when the Marshall-Newman Amendment is reversed, but I suspect it is a long way off in the future. Once done constitutionally, these things are not undone easily.”
So, in the meantime, what we do is fight to take back the House of Delegates for Democrats, then elect more progressive Democrats, then educate the public, then repeal this monstrosity. Optimistic case: take back the House of Delegates in 2011, add more progressive Democrats over the next few cycles, put it to the voters by 2015 or 2020. As much as I wish this could be done tomorrow, that's my best case scenario for undoing the disaster that is Marshall-Newman. Either that, or have the Supreme Court override it all by ruling Marshall-Newman unconstitutional. For that, we need a progressive-controlled Supreme Court, which I hope to see by the end of President Obama's second term in office.
Until then, we should fight hard for every other right to gay and lesbian Americans. We should fight to bar any form of discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans. We should make sure that "hate crimes" include the LGBT community. And we should work to educate the public about gay marriage. When the day comes that Marshall-Newman is repealed, I will celebrate with my gay and lesbian friends, but one thing I can guarantee those friends: Brian Moran will not repeal Marshall-Newman if he is elected governor. The sad reality is that wishing (and political rhetoric) simply does not make it so...
P.S. It's also important to note, once again, that in 2004, Brian Moran voted for Bob McDonnell's resolution encouraging Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning not only gay marriage but also civil unions. Moran explained his vote at the time, saying "Those of us that are uncomfortable with the state recognizing a gay marriage would have difficulty not supporting the resolution."
