Gay-marriage battle being waged in Virginia

Associated Press

NORFOLK, Va.

The gay-marriage fight arrived in a Southern courtroom Tuesday, as opponents of a Virginia law banning same-sex unions told a federal judge it was just like the Jim Crow-era prohibition against interracial marriage.

Supporters maintained there was no fundamental right to gay marriage and the ban exists as part of the state’s interest in responsible procreation.

“We have marriage laws in society because we have children, not because we have adults,” said attorney David Nimocks, of the religious group Alliance Defending Freedom.

The case is being closely watched because it could give the gay-marriage movement its first foothold in the South, and because legal experts think it’s on the fast track to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Recently elected Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, announced Jan. 23 that he would not defend the ban because he thinks it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Federal judges have cited the 14th Amendment in overturning gay-marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma.