(AgapePress) - Traditional marriage advocates in Virginia are celebrating the progress so far this year in their efforts to get a marriage amendment onto the state's November ballot. The Virginia House of Delegates has passed both a resolution and a bill that has now moved on to the Senate.

Dodging attempts to put the initiative on the back burner last week, a House committee passed resolution HJ-41; then the full House passed Bill 101 on Monday. Both pieces of legislation state the intention of placing on the ballot in November an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that will define marriage as a union between one man and one woman and that will ban civil unions as well.

Victoria Cobb, executive director of the Family Foundation of Virginia, says although opponents of traditional marriage are fighting these legislative efforts, state lawmakers know which way the majority of the citizens are leaning. "We've seen that this continues to be highly favored by our General Assembly," she says. "They understand the will of the people on this, and that Virginia wants the opportunity to put traditional marriage into our Constitution."

Member groups of "VA4Marriage.org" recently encouraged as many Virginians as possible to come to the State Capitol in Richmond to talk with their legislators about the initiative. Educational sessions were also held to teach participants how to continue supporting the initiative back in their communities.

Cobb says this is all part of the necessary effort to keep pressure on legislators to make laws in favor of families and their best interests. "It's really important that Christian citizens have a voice and that they engage the legislators," she notes, "because it's simply not enough to vote them into office -- we then need to pursue that with making sure that they understand where we stand on these critical matters of the family."

Pro-family groups rallying on Monday hailed the news that the Virginia House of Delegates had passed the bill placing the marriage amendment issue on the ballot next fall. Cobb thinks the state Senate could take up the legislation as early as this week.

Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

© 2006 AgapePress all rights reserved.

 

E-mail this page to a friend Printer-Friendly Version