In the Marriage Affirmation Act, Virginia appears to abridge gay individuals’ right to enter into private contracts with each other. On its face, the law could interfere with wills, medical directives, powers of attorney, child custody and property arrangements, even perhaps joint bank accounts. If a gay Californian was hit by a bus in Arlington, her medical power of attorney might be worthless there. “Sorry,” the hospital might have to say to her frantic partner, “your contract means nothing here. Now leave before we call security.”
On July 1, Virginia will put into effect one of the most draconian anti-gay laws in the nation. Gay marriage is already prohibited there, but the new law will even make it illegal for two same-sex people to create private wills or powers of attorney with each other. This goes beyond denigating gay couples; it denigrates the power of gay people as individuals. In infringing on the right of contract, it seems blatantly unconstitutional. (If I have my law correctly.)
I’m almost ashamed I went to school there. Virginia, I’m disappointed in you.
It amazes me how crazy those VA politicians are/were. Now the state will get to spend a lot of money defending an unconstitutional law that will ultimately be ruled against. Stupid.
This shows again that alot of the “Sanctity of Marriage” argument is a crock and a smokescreen.
What this is about making us quasi- or semi- citizens.
Are they so afraid that their kids (or maybe their spouses) are planning to go queer unless we are portrayed as pariahs?
“The land of the free and the home of the…”
“O’Canada…glorious and free” ah, just something to think about….Bill
Oh flock. If I’ve read that correctly then that’s just plain stupid. That means that if I wanted to leave everything to my brother, I couldn’t. And vice versa. (I don’t have a brother, I’m just saying…) This is one of these laws that just sounds blatantly unconstitutional.
One assumes the Virginia legislature has some sort of legal apparatus with which they consult when writing legislation. I’d really like to see the advice memo their lawyers wrote when the sponsors went to them with this idea.
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