Bob Witeck and Bob Connelly have been married for over a decade, yet Virginia's constitution still says people like them shouldn't be allowed to wed. The 2006 amendment banning same-sex marriage has been unenforceable since a federal court struck it down in 2014, but it has never actually been erased from the state's founding document.

This November, Virginia voters get the chance to finish the job. Question 2 would remove the outdated ban and write marriage equality directly into the state constitution, guaranteeing every couple the right to marry regardless of sex, gender or race. It cleared the General Assembly twice, and now it's in voters' hands.

This isn't just paperwork. With Obergefell v. Hodges facing renewed legal challenges, and Justice Clarence Thomas on record questioning the ruling, a state-level guarantee is one protection courts can't quietly take away later. Newly engaged Virginia couple Sidrah Marotti and Wynn Maravilla put it plainly: "The case law is so precarious, and that's, like, all that's holding our right to get married in place right now. It feels destabilizing," Marotti told The 19th.

Leaving an unenforceable ban sitting in the constitution costs nothing to remove and everything to keep on the books — it tells same-sex couples their equality is conditional. Erasing it is about fairness, consistency between our laws and our lives, and keeping government out of private commitments two people make to each other.

Virginia voters: sign this petition to support Question 2 and remove the marriage ban from our constitution for good, before shifting courts get the chance to decide for us.