The Virginia Senate on Tuesday approved a resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The resolution that state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced passed by a 24-15 vote margin. An identical measure that state Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County) has proposed passed in the Virginia House of Delegates last week.

Sickles and Ebbin are both gay.

Voters approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006.

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.

The General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment. It must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.

Local community activist Zar, who founded the D.C. LGBTQ event and advocacy group Team Rayceen Productions in 2014 in collaboration with fellow activist Rayceen Pendarvis, announced he has resigned from his position as the group’s creative director effective Jan. 14.

His announcement says since there is currently “nobody who is willing, ready, or able to be my successor, I must also announce that the current Winter Hiatus of Team Rayceen Productions will continue indefinitely.”  

The announcement says Rayceen Pendarvis will remain active in the community and remain available to be booked as a host, emcee, panelist, and wedding officiant in the role Pendarvis has played in the D.C. community for many years. 

The primary motivation for his resignation at this time, Zar said in his announcement, is his deep concern about the problems he believes will surface during the incoming Trump administration.

“I am all but certain that the next four years and beyond will be chaotic, and possibly dystopian or apocalyptic,” he says in his announcement. “This is not the time for diplomacy, compromise, or capitulation,” he continues. “I understand that advocating for peaceful and nonviolent solutions is generally considered the only acceptable tactic; I am unwilling to abide.”

Out of deference to Pendarvis and others involved with Team Rayceen Productions, Zar said it would be unfair “to allow my personal and political views to be conflated with those of anyone else,” including those involved with Team Rayceen Productions.

“This requires my resignation,” Zar wrote in his announcement. “I am unwilling to be silent or censor myself.”

Zar said that while Team Rayceen Productions’ operations are currently on hold, its online content will remain available, “including over 900 videos created over the past five years for our YouTube channel and our Facebook live streams.”

Upwards of 25,000 people attended the People’s March that took place in D.C. on Saturday.

Participants — who protested against President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals they say would target transgender people, immigrants, women, and other groups — gathered at McPherson and Farragut Squares and Franklin Park before they joined the march that ended at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Gender Liberation Movement is among the groups that sponsored the march. Dozens of other People’s Marches took place in cities across the country on Saturday.

Trump’s inauguration will take place in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Michael K. Lavers)

#PeoplesMarch participants arrive at the Lincoln Memorial pic.twitter.com/TZjFb2UtYq

— Michael K. Lavers (He/Him) (@mklavers81) January 18, 2025

At the People’s March. Covering for @WashBlade pic.twitter.com/6ri4yMDY77

— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) January 18, 2025