CHARLOTTESVILLE — John Reid is his own man.
The longtime conservative radio host now running for Virginia’s second-highest office is fully aware there is a divide on the Republican statewide ticket this year. Not over tariffs or cuts to the federal workforce or risks to Medicaid coverage, but gay marriage.
Reid, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, is a gay man in a long-term relationship with another man. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee for governor, remains an outspoken opponent of gay marriage.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the Obergefell v. Hodges case 10 years ago this year recognized gay marriages nationwide, and in Virginia, gay marriages have been recognized since 2014, after the high court decided not to hear an appeal in the lesser-known case of Bostic v. Schaefer. But many state constitutions, Virginia’s included, still ban same-sex marriages.
People are also reading…
- Lord Botetourt grad Toliver transferring from Brown to Roanoke
- Blue Ridge Parkway communities summit in Roanoke
- Roanoke councilman appeals homestay zoning decision to courts
- Virginia advances plans for nuclear reactor in southwest region
Lawmakers have been working for years to repeal the now-impotent amendment and enshrine gay marriage in the Virginia Constitution. Pushback has been dwindling as gay marriage becomes more widely accepted in the commonwealth; a 2021 survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 71% of Virginians support gay marriage.
But not everyone.
Last year, Earle-Sears publicly noted her opposition to gay marriage after the General Assembly passed such an amendment.
“As the Lt. Governor, I recognize and respect my constitutional obligation to adhere to the procedures laid out in the Constitution of Virginia,” she wrote on the bill. “However, I remain morally opposed to the contents of HB 174 as passed by the General Assembly.”
The amendment must pass the General Assembly twice in two consecutive legislative sessions before it can be put before voters to finally accept or reject.
Reid is on the record saying if there were a tie in the state Senate, where as lieutenant governor he would be required to cast tie-breaking votes, he would vote no on the amendment as currently worded — in line with the woman running to be his future boss.
But should lawmakers simply repeal the current amendment banning gay marriage, Reid said his vote would be different.
“If they wanted to just do a straight repeal — forgive the terminology there — a straight repeal of the amendment that currently exists, then that would be a different situation,” Reid said during an editorial board meeting with The Daily Progress.
Reid said he is a proud gay man and that he has never supported Virginia’s constitutional ban that voters approved in 2006.
“I’m not against gay marriage. I’m a gay man. I am very pleased the decision the Supreme Court made to give that right to gay and lesbian citizens. I have talked about this for 20-plus years,” he said. “I was against the amendment that currently exists in Virginia’s constitution. I went and voted against that.”
Reid said he knows that puts him at odds with Earle-Sears.
Though the governor and lieutenant governor are independently elected, the lieutenant governor is expected to execute the governor’s will, particularly if the two are in the same political party.
“I certainly will always have respect for whoever is the governor. I was raised that way. I believe that,” Reid said. “But the lieutenant governor is an autonomous figure who makes their own mind up.”
“I think Virginians want that,” he added. “That’s what I’m campaigning on, is that I’m an independent-minded person, I’m not beholden to anybody, I’m beholden to the positions that I espouse to the voters.”
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts
Reid takes issue with the wording of the constitutional amendment currently awaiting its second vote in the General Assembly, what he called the “Democrat version of this amendment” despite its bipartisan support.
“The way it’s written is really problematic,” he said.
“Marriage is one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness,” reads the proposed amendment’s language. “This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not deny the issuance of a marriage license to two adult persons seeking a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of such persons. This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall recognize any lawful marriage between two adult persons and treat such marriages equally under the law, regardless of the sex, gender, or race of such persons.”
State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, who is Reid’s Democratic opponent this November, has been a proponent of the amendment.
But Reid said he is worried that under the current language priests and other religious leaders who do not support gay marriage would be compelled to officiate them, opening Virginia up to lawsuits should a gay couple be turned away at a church door.
“I think there will be an aggressive effort to go after churches and try to strip them of their tax-exempt status, trying to make sure that they can’t engage in government programs,” he said.
Reid said his position is informed by his support for personal liberties.
“My role as lieutenant governor is to protect everybody’s rights, it’s to make sure the citizens can live the lives they want to live unencumbered by government intervention and punishment from government agencies, and I want gay men and women to live as they see fit,” Reid said. “But even if it hurts my feelings, if there is a church, if there is a pastor — and there are lots of them in Virginia — who do not approve of gay marriage — I wish they didn’t feel that way, but it’s not my place to argue with them — I’ve got to protect their rights to organize and believe and speak and exist as they see fit. I think I’m making everybody mad with that answer, but I think it is the right answer, and I think it is the future of Virginia. If we want to live in a free society, that needs to be freedom for everyone to live as they see fit.”
Earle-Sears has not addressed the clear divide between her and Reid. Her campaign has repeatedly left Daily Progress inquiries unanswered.
It is not the first thing to divide the ticket.
The pair did not appear at a rally together until July 1, despite neither facing an opponent in their respective primary elections. The delay was prompted by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s request Reid drop out of the race. Youngkin said he had been alerted to racy photos, which he described as “disturbing online content,” posted to an account sharing the username Reid uses on other social media platforms. Reid has repeatedly denied the photos or account belong to him, and he has called the attempt to end his campaign “a coup against a gay man, whom they didn’t want to be their nominee, but didn’t have the guts to run against.”
Earle-Sears, and incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares who is running for reelection, have remained tight-lipped about the controversy. When the three of them took the stage at the July 1 rally in Vienna, they kept mum.
Youngkin, who was also at the rally to throw his support behind the trio, said he is confident that Reid’s tie-breaking votes in the state Senate would be the “right” votes.
“There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know,” the governor said. “But I do know this: When there is a 50/50 tie in that Senate, John Reid is going to sign bills the right way, and say no when they’re the wrong bills.”
Youngkin did not say specifically which bills.
It should be noted that Youngkin himself has broken with his lieutenant governor, signing into law last year a bill ensuring that gay marriages remain legal in Virginia regardless of future court decisions. Youngkin’s office emphasized that the law carves out faith-based exemptions, allowing clergy to decline to officiate at gay weddings.
Youngkin’s signature came as a surprise to many, but it is perhaps this maverick behavior exhibited by a popular governor Reid is hoping to mirror.
“Let’s be very clear here, I don’t owe anybody anything at the state Capitol, whether it’s the current governor or the next governor or members of the legislature,” Reid said. “I’m running because I’m motivated to be a state leader, so I’m going to look at every piece of legislation.”
“You can count on me evaluating everything independently and seeking guidance from a lot of different people, and then casting the vote that I think is right in every situation,” he said.