WHO: ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence

WHAT: Available for media interviews after testifying before West Virginia Legislature on need for constitutional amendment protecting marriage

WHEN: Tuesday, July 14, immediately following hearing, which begins at 11 a.m. EDT

WHERE: State Capitol Building, West Wing, Room 208W, Senate Judiciary Committee Room, Charleston

CHARLESTON, W.V. — Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will be available for media interviews Tuesday following his testimony before the West Virginia Legislature on the need for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.  Lorence will stress to the legislature that West Virginia voters should have the opportunity to vote on whether to amend the state constitution since the state’s Defense of Marriage Act is not sufficient to guard against legal attacks on marriage.

“The legal definition of marriage in West Virginia should be decided by the voters--not judges or politicians--and 94 percent of West Virginians agree. Public policy should be decided by the public,” said Lorence. “West Virginia’s Defense of Marriage Act will not prevent the variety of legal attacks that we’ve seen on marriage in other states. Courts in California, Connecticut, Iowa, and Massachusetts have invalidated nearly identical laws. Legislatures in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia have expanded the definition of marriage without voter input.”

“West Virginia need not fall prey to the same problems,” Lorence added. “State legislators have the opportunity to be champions of the people instead of leaving them vulnerable.”

HCR 88, the resolution sponsored by 70 members in the House of Delegates and passed unanimously at the end of the regular session to consider the need for a marriage amendment, will be heard by Subcommittee A of the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary. The committee has asked to hear from the Alliance Defense Fund, the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Fairness West Virginia.

Although courts in eight states have invalidated Defense of Marriage laws, no court has overturned a voter-approved constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Such amendments currently exist in 30 states.

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.