Virginia gay-rights advocates hailed yesterday's California Supreme Court decision overturning California's ban on same-sex marriages.

But a leading opponent of same-sex marriage said the California decision validates the push in Virginia two years ago to put a ban on same-sex marriage in the Virginia Constitution.

"Like California, our laws protecting marriage were at the mercy of the courts until Virginians were given the opportunity to amend the state Constitution to define marriage," said Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said what California does is always important, but he thought the ban in Virginia's Constitution would prevent the California decision from having an impact on Virginia.

In November 2006 Virginians voted to approve a constitutional amendment confirming that marriage is between one man and one woman. The amendment, which passed with 57 percent of the vote, also outlawed civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Virginia lawmakers previously had approved a Defense of Marriage Act in 1997 and a bill to ban same-sex civil unions in 2005. Opponents of same-sex marriage said a constitutional amendment would give Virginia more protection against "activist judges" who might throw out the state statutes.

Dyana Mason, a spokeswoman for Equality Virginia, a gay-rights advocacy group, said "the California marriage decision will affect over 36 million people -- well over 10 percent of the total population of America."

But she acknowledged that the constitutional amendment in Virginia, banning civil unions as well as same-sex marriages, would lessen the impact.

"We will continue to work to change hearts and minds and to seek full equality under the law," she said.

Cobb, of the Family Foundation, said the California court made an "appalling" decision to deny children the right to have a mother and a father.

"Regardless of the insanity of California's courts, the law in Virginia is perfectly clear," she said.

Jay Squires, executive director of the Gay Community Center of Richmond, said "America has a history of treating people fairly equally. This is nothing more than a step in that direction."

If California rejects a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages, "it will be a sort of impetus for full marriage equality nationwide," Squires said.
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writer Robin Farmer contributed to this report.