Virginia Pastor Sues to Block Repeal of Same-Sex Marriage Ban
Pastor Ben Purves claims procedural violations should invalidate the ballot measure, even if Virginia voters approve it.
A Northern Virginia pastor filed a lawsuit seeking to block a ballot measure that would repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment, a 2006 voter-approved amendment banning state recognition of same-sex marriages or similar relationships.
The Founding Freedoms Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of Pastor Ben Purves.
The complaint alleges that state and local clerks failed to distribute and publicly post copies of the proposed amendment at Virginia courthouses at least three months before the November 4, 2025, House of Delegates election, as required by state law. It asks the court to invalidate the amendment, even if voters approve it.
The Virginia Constitution requires both chambers of the General Assembly to approve identical amendment language before and after a House of Delegates election before it can go to voters.
Purves, pastor of Occoquan Bible Church in Prince William County, has organized Virginia pastors against both the marriage amendment and a second ballot measure guaranteeing a right to abortion. He authored an open letter urging pastors to oppose both measures and encourage their congregations to do the same. More than 400 pastors have signed the letter, according to FOX affiliate WTTG.
“The term ‘marriage’ has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman into a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture,” the open letter reads.
The letter also argues that allowing two people to marry regardless of gender violates its signatories’ religious belief that sex and gender are fixed at birth.
“Every human is immutably male or female, and this self-evident truth is likewise embedded in our DNA,” it reads. “Denying reality only brings a ripple effect of harm to society that is acutely felt by individuals, families, schools, and sports teams.”
Purves’ lawsuit also objects to the removal of language explicitly stating that clergy would not be required to perform same-sex marriages. Other religious leaders have claimed that, without that provision, the amendment would force them to perform such marriages against their religious beliefs.
Supporters of the amendment counter that Virginia law already grants religious organizations “the right to refuse to perform any marriage.” They describe Purves’ lawsuit as a last-ditch attempt to preserve the state’s unenforceable ban on same-sex marriage.
The Marshall-Newman Amendment was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal court in 2014, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized same-sex nuptials nationwide. But many Republican lawmakers have been dogged in insisting the language of the ban remain on the books, in the hope that it could one day be enforced once more if the nation’s highest court reverses that 2015 ruling.
In a statement to the Christian Post, Virginians for Marriage Equality, the statewide organization supporting the repeal amendment, warned of a potential Supreme Court reversal of Obergefell. The organization said that, if the ruling is overturned and Marshall-Newman remains in place, “thousands of Virginians will lose hospital visitation rights, inheritance protections, the ability to make medical decisions for a spouse, and the security of knowing their family is recognized by their own state.”
It remains unclear when the court will rule on Purves’ lawsuit.
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