Virginia's Marriage Amendment Writes 'Gender' Into the Constitution. Girls' Locker Rooms Are Next.

Virginians should vote no on Question 2, because it writes "gender" into the state constitution as a category set beside sex, and it does it inside a question about marriage¹. On Oct. 22, American Principles Project warned on X: "Leftists in Virginia are attempting to redefine "biological sex" by giving the term "gender" equal standing under the law²."

APP said that if the measure passes, it "would set the legal groundwork to allow biological males to invade women's spaces en masse simply by claiming to be the opposite" sex². Why does a marriage amendment need the word gender at all?

Start with what is on the books now. The Virginia Department of Elections says the state constitution prohibits marriages and civil unions between persons of the same sex or gender. The Department says the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges made that prohibition unenforceable. It adds that the prohibition would become enforceable again if the Court overturned that decision¹.

Question 2 strikes that prohibition from the Bill of Rights. The amendment then goes further, and in the Department's words it "prohibits the state from denying a marriage license to two adult persons because of their sex, gender, or race." It would also require the state to recognize and treat equally any lawful marriage between two adults "regardless of the sex, gender, or race of either person¹."

Sex is biological reality, and it is the basis for every distinction that protects women and girls in locker rooms, restrooms and sports. A constitution that lists sex and gender as two separate categories tells every court that the words mean two different things. The amendment's own defenders say that is exactly what they intend.

VPM reports that Elana Redfield, federal policy director at the Williams Institute, said Virginia must explicitly include sex and gender in the amendment for transgender, nonbinary and intersex people to receive its protections. Redfield said she sees the Supreme Court’s 2025 Skrmetti decision as saying that gender should be separated from sex for transgender people. That ruling upheld Tennessee's ban on sex-change procedures for minors³. Question 2 would hand the gender side of that split its own place in Virginia's constitution.

Former Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears put the question plainly: "Why include gender? Because the dictionary says that gender is whatever it is, whatever society says it is today, what it changes tomorrow, it changes the next day. Everything is in flux." VPM reports that Earle-Sears and other opponents worry the change would extend protections for transgender people "especially in the areas of sports and access to restrooms³." Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, told VPM News what comes next: "It will invite them to court to challenge anything, for example, such as biological men in women’s bathrooms⁴."

Supporters say the state needs to “double down on those protections in case that were to change,” VPM reports. Chad Stewart, who married his husband in Massachusetts weeks before the 2015 decision and is raising a 3-year-old daughter, told VPM News: "We’re hopeful that this amendment will pass and there will be that added layer of protection⁴."

The word gender is there because, by Redfield's account, it reaches people the word sex does not. Virginia's daughters would live under that choice long after the marriage debate moves on.

The Family Foundation of Virginia put the choice plainly on Oct. 22: "On Nov. 3, Vote NO on Amendments 1 and 2." Its charge to families: "Protect life. Protect marriage. Protect parental rights⁵."

Voting began Sept. 18, and Election Day is Nov. 3⁴. Keep gender out of Virginia's constitution, and vote no on Question 2.

Sources

1. Virginia Dept. of Elections: Proposed Constitutional Amendment, Question 2
2. @approject on X, 2026-10-22: Leftists in Virginia are attempting to redefine "biological sex" by giving the term "gender" equal standing under the law. If passed, this measure would set the legal groundwork to allow biological males to invade women's spaces en masse simply by claiming to b, 2026-10-22
3. Opponents of Virginia’s marriage amendment are focusing on gender - VPM
4. Amending Virginia: Voters to decide on marriage equality
5. @TFFVA on X, 2026-10-22: At Washington’s tomb: the promise of life. Across Virginia: a prescription for death. You can’t abandon Virginia without abandoning America. A tree dies from the root—and we are the root. On Nov. 3, Vote NO on Amendments 1 and 2. Protect life. Protect marriage. Pro, 2026-10-22