Same-sex marriage has been legal in Virginia of 10 years now, since October 6, 2014, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal in the case of Bostic v. Rainey. The law went into effect on July 1, 2020 that protects LGBT persons from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. The state’s hate crime laws also now explicitly include both sexual orientation and gender identity.
Prior to July 1, 2020, Virginia only afforded limited protections for LGBT persons (in state employment only), the state’s hate crime laws did not include a provision for sexual orientation or gender identity, and the statute criminalizing sodomy between same-sex and opposite-sex couples, though declared unconstitutional nationally by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2003, was not repealed until 11 years later in 2014.
The ruling has faced a number of challenges since then, beginning in November 2006 when Virginia voters ratified a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
In mid-2013, two lawsuits were filed in federal court challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. In January 2014, newly elected Attorney General Mark Herring filed a brief stating the state’s reversal in the lawsuit in Norfolk: “The Attorney General has concluded that Virginia’s laws denying the right to marry to same-sex couples violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Governor Terry McAuliffe, also a recently elected Democrat, backed Herring’s refusal to defend the ban.
A federal court decision in Bostic v. Rainey on February 13, 2014, found Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, but stayed enforcement of that decision pending appeal. On July 28, 2014, the Fourth Circuit ruled 2–1 in favor of upholding the lower court’s decision to strike down Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Scheduled on August 21, 2014, gay marriage was to be legal in Virginia, but was later put on hold by the Supreme Court on August 20, 2014, to review the option. Same-sex marriage in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia has been legal since October 6, 2014, following a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to refuse to hear an appeal of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Bostic v. Schaefer. Marriages of same-sex couples subsequently began at 1pm October 6 after the Circuit Court issued its mandate; the first same-sex couple to marry in the Commonwealth was Lindsey Oliver and Nicole Pries in Richmond, Virginia. Since then Virginia has performed legal marriages of same-sex couples and recognized out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples.
On March 3, 2020, Governor Ralph Northam signed into law a bill formally repealing the defunct statutory ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions.
In February 2022, a Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee blocked a bill and resolution to remove the defunct gay marriage ban within the Virginia Constitution, and it stands today.