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Voters in Virginia have approved an amendment to remove the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, two decades after residents voted to define marriage as a union solely between a man and a woman.
The amendment removes a provision which states that marriage is only between a man and a woman and will prohibit the state from denying a marriage license to two adults because of their sex, gender or race.
In 2014, a federal judge struck down the ban as unconstitutional, and same-sex marriage has been legal across the U.S. since the Supreme Court’s historic 2015 ruling in Obergefell vs. Hodges. The high court rejected an appeal to that decision last year.
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Question 2, which went before voters on November 3, would remove the existing provision from the Virginia Constitution and replace it with language affirming that two adults may marry regardless of their sex, gender or race. It would also require legally valid marriages to be treated equally under state law.
At the November 4 cutoff, however, the amendment's formal certification and effective step were still pending; this means Virginia's old language had not yet technically disappeared from the constitution.
But this successful measure is set to take the restriction off the books in Virginia. The state initially added the restriction to its constitution in 2006.
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What Is Obergefell vs. Hodges?
Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark June 26, 2015, decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges.
In the case, the Court held that the 14th Amendment requires states to license marriages between two people of the same sex and recognize lawful same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
The decision effectively invalidated state same-sex marriage bans around the country. But it did not physically remove those provisions from state constitutions or statutes. As a result, numerous states continued to carry language prohibiting same-sex marriage, even though it could no longer be enforced.
That distinction has attracted renewed attention in recent years. The Movement Advancement Project says states continue to have constitutional amendments, statutes or both that prohibit marriage for same-sex couples, although the restrictions remain unenforceable because of Obergefell vs. Hodges.
Congress also passed the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, creating federal protections requiring states to recognize marriages legally performed in other states.
In 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis’s petition challenging her civil rights liability for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015.
That decision in turn reaffirmed the principle that public officials cannot use personal religious beliefs to deny others their constitutional rights.
More broadly, it left the landmark 2015 ruling untouched.
Which Other States Removed Same-Sex Marriage Bans?
Virginia is the latest in a relatively small group of states whose voters have acted to remove obsolete constitutional restrictions since Obergefell vs. Hodges.
Nevada became the first to do so in 2020, replacing its ban with language protecting marriage regardless of gender.
Voters in California, Colorado and Hawaii followed in November 2024 by removing restrictive marriage provisions from their respective state constitutions. The Movement Advancement Project confirms that all three repealed their constitutional marriage amendments that year.
Virginia's amendment would make it the fifth state to repeal a constitutional same-sex marriage restriction.
Before Virginia's amendment takes formal effect, 27 states still technically have restrictive marriage language in their constitutions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Once Virginia's amendment formally takes effect, that figure would fall to 26 states. The remaining provisions do not currently prevent same-sex couples from marrying because Obergefell vs. Hodges remains, controlling Supreme Court precedent.
That means Virginia's vote does not newly legalize same-sex marriage in the Commonwealth. Instead, it removes an unenforceable constitutional restriction dating from 2006 and replaces it with an affirmative state constitutional protection for marriage equality.
What Happens Next
The amendment will come into effect on January 1, 2027.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and James Debens
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