March 2, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: The Feb. 25 un-bylined article about the meeting of the local Republican Committee reported that one item on the agenda would be a discussion of “the constitutional marriage amendment that will remove all protection for churches, ministers or other officials who have the authority to perform marriage ceremonies to abstain from performing same-sex marriage.”
This is false. The proposed amendment does no such thing.
House Bill 612 proposed adding the following question to November’s ballot: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to (i) remove the ban on same-sex marriage; (ii) affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race; and (iii) require all legally valid marriages to be treated equally under the law?”
Nowhere does it contain language requiring clergy or religious organizations to perform marriages that conflict with their religious beliefs, nor does it strip existing statutory or constitutional protections for religious exercise.
I am assuming this misleading and fear-mongering description of the amendment came from a press release provided by the local Republican Party and not from reporting by The News-Gazette. Your readers deserve accuracy. If the Republicans won’t provide it, I hope you will.
STEPHANIE WILKINSON Lexington
