Virginia’s ‘Same-Gender’ Marriage Amendment

Why are Virginia Democrats pushing a state constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to marry regardless of “gender”? The amendment, now before voters, would make legally permanent both “same-sex” and “same-gender” marriage.

According to the Virginia Department of Elections, if the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell were overturned (which the Supreme Court has signaled is not in the cards), then same-sex marriages would again be illegal in Virginia because “the prohibition on marriages between persons of the same sex or gender remains in the state’s Constitution.”

Say what? Nowhere in the original marriage law currently on the books but unenforceable is there a prohibition against “same-gender marriage.” In fact, before the day before yesterday, no one would have ever conceived of a “same-gender marriage” that was distinct from “same-sex marriage.” What was prohibited were marriages between two men to each other, or two women to each other (but we now know that Democrats have a Big Problem defining what a woman is, including a Democratic Supreme Court Justice).

Prior to Obergefell, if a man (with XY chromosomes, born with male genitalia) self-identified as a woman and wanted to marry a woman (with XX chromosomes, born with female genitalia), there was no issue, whether the woman self-identified as male or female. If a woman who self-identified as a man wanted to marry a man, there would be no problem, whether the man self-identified as female or male. In other words, there was no prohibition whatsoever against “same-gender marriage.”

But once given equal status with “sex” in the state constitution, the door is open for Virginia courts to rule that self-identified “gender” is a protected category, legally equivalent with “sex,” so no barring physical males who identify as female from girls’ locker rooms and sports teams, for starters.

Which could explain what Virginia’s Democrats are really up to with this amendment.



And speaking about the upcoming/ongoing election:

That Thing That Never Happens …

Public schools socially transitioning gender-nonconforming kids (such as telling Sally she’s really Sam born in the wrong body; giving her “boy” clothes to change into; providing resources leading to puberty blockers, hormones, and eventual surgeries) is “that thing that never happens” according to LGBTQ+ activists and their straight but oh-so-woke allies (teachers, educrats), but which apparently is happening all the time.











LGBTQ+, LGBT, or LGB? A Defense of Gay Identity [Extended Version]

I’ve published in my Substack a longer version of my July 30 IGF CultureWatch post. I’ll leave the original post up but recommended clicking on the extended Substack version, linked to below.



One of the additions in the Substack version is a discussion of the Log Cabin Republicans announcement that they will now label themselves as an advocacy organization for LGB Republicans and conservatives, dropping the “T” they added to their self-description in 2015, and the reasons behind this decision.







And this: “Why Progressive Activists Are BIG MAD That Log Cabin Republicans Dropped the “T” And Why Gays Are Happy About It.”

LGBTQ+, LGBT, or LGB? The Loss of Gay Identity

Matthew Vines, in a Substack follow-up to his controversial New York Times op-ed arguing against “Queer” as an identity designation, tries to make the case for an “LGBT” identity coalition, without the anti-normative “Q+” that simply seeks to elevate transgressiveness.
What Vines doesn’t want to grapple with, however, is how transgenderism, or gender-identity ideology, itself undermines the concept of same-sex attraction as well as gay/lesbian and women’s rights.
Encouraging gender-nonconforming children to consider whether they were “born in the wrong body,” as many progressive school districts now do (with or without parental consent) followed by social transitioning that puts proto-gay or just gender-confused kids on the road to medicalization; allowing biological males who identify as female (often with limited or even without various medicalizations) to participate in girls’/women’s sports and have access to female-only spaces; and demanding that sexual attraction be defined by gender identity, not biological sex, are now all fundamental tenets of the “T” advocacy embedded in “LGBT.”
Which is why the growing LGB counter-movement goes its own way, without T and Q+.

Supreme Court: States Can Bar Boys from Girls’ Sports

In a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can limit public school and college girls’ and women’s sporting competition to biological females.











Battle Lines

Gay community and gay rights activism/politics were once intricately bound together. Now, what passes for gay community and LGBTQ+ activism/politics seem to be worlds apart, although many older gay men still heavily fund LGBTQ+ activist organizations, apparently unaware of the agenda these groups now support, such as transing gender-nonconforming gay and proto-gay kids and putting physically intact males who self-identify as female into girl’s and women’s locker rooms and sports.

From the Down Under, “Battle Lines Drawn as Gay, Trans Camps Square Off.”

But trans vs. gay may be the future generally. Via LGB Alliance Australia:

“Let’s be clear. ‘LGBTQIA+ no longer represents us. It now encompasses institutions that oppose the rights of lesbians, gay man and bisexual people, erasing our language, distorting our reality and mischaracterizing our rights as hate.”