Races that could determine the fate of same-sex Virginia marriages are on this year's ballot

Virginia is about to enter the unofficial final lap of its long race to determine the next tenant of its Executive Mansion. The escalating television ads, the direct mail, the social media bombardments are just starting. Campaign signs sprout on lawns like toadstools.

But it’s the races at the bottom of November’s ballot — for all 100 seats in the House of Delegates — that could portend heartbreaking consequences: potentially the forced dissolution of many thousands of same-sex marriages and the families built on them across the commonwealth.

How, you ask? The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages 10 years ago in Obergefell v. Hodges. It’s settled law.

Roe v. Wade stood for 49 years, guaranteeing a federal legal right to abortions, until a conservative court supermajority, cemented during President Donald Trump’s first term, overturned it in 2022 and made reproductive rights a state-by-state determination.




https://virginiamercury.com/2025/08/26/races-that-could-determine-the-fate-of-same-sex-virginia-marriages-are-on-this-years-ballot/