HB1660: Plated Haters Win in House: "After all, what 'traditional marriage' are these people supporting? The 'traditional marriage' in Virginia under which, until 1967, interracial marriage was illegal?  In that context, celebrating 'traditional marriage' in Virginia is actually quite offensive.  It's only 'modern marriage' in Virginia that begins to approach basic fairness for all Virginians.

It was less than 50 years ago that Virginia police broke into the home of Virginia newlyweds Richard and Mildred Loving, a 'white' husband and 'Negro' bride.  They were arrested, charged under Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws, and sentenced to one year in prison.  The trial judge suspended that sentence on the condition that the newlywed Lovings not return to Virginia for 25 years. They moved to DC, and later challenged their convictions in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.  In the 1967 Supreme Court unanimous ruling in Loving v. Virginia that declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, Chief Justice Warren wrote:

The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)