House OKs 'Traditional Marriage' plates

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RICHMOND -- The House yesterday approved a bill that would create a special "Traditional Marriage" license plate for Virginia motorists.

Delegates voted 62-35 in support of the bill and sent it to the Senate for consideration.

During a debate on the measure yesterday, a Republican and a Democrat spoke against the bill, arguing that the special license plate makes a mockery of marriage.

Delegate R. Lee Ware said instead of license plates, lawmakers should focus their attention on a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

"Because it is a matter of gravity, a matter of this kind of gravity, I think we trivialize it to reduce it to a commuter plate," the Powhatan Republican said. "I am looking forward to a serious debate of a serious social matter."

Delegate Robert H. Brink said the marriage plate bordered on "uncharted territory in license plate land" and does a "grave disservice" to marriage.

"Putting marriage in the same class as license plates for Holstein cows, Parrotheads and Harley-Davidson owners ... cheapens and trivializes marriage," the Arlington Democrat said. "Using marriage as a political football is just wrong and that's what we're doing today."

Mr. Brink also said many lawmakers might feel pressured to vote in support of the bill so they aren't labeled by their opponents as "anti-marriage" in the November election.

"Down my way, you're dead in the water if you vote against it," Delegate Jackie T. Stump, of Buchanan County, said during a House Democratic caucus meeting this week.

Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter, Prince William County Republican who authored the bill, encouraged delegates to vote for it. "Send a message to the commonwealth that you're not ashamed of traditional marriage," he said.