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RESOLUTION • WHEREAS, the City of Charlottesville is a richly diverse community, and is it in the public interest of the City to assure that each citizen is treated fairly and provided equal protections of the law and equal opportunity to participate in the benefits and privileges of community life; and, WHEREAS, the City of Charlottesville is committed to protecting the rights of all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or martial status; and, WHEREAS, the Virginia General Assembly has voted to approve an amendment to the Bill of Rights to the Virginia Constitution reading: "That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions. This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership or legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations qualities, or effects of marriage." is and, WHEREAS, the language of the proposed amendment goes far beyond the Constitutional proposals enacted in any other state, makes significant and substantial changes in current Virginia law by extending the prohibition on relationship recognition to all "unmarried individuals" and may have other unintended and unpredictable consequences;and, WHEREAS, the proposed amendment has become mislabeled in shorthand as the "Marriage Amendment" when it is only the first sentence of the ballot language which directly address the definition of marriage, while the remaining ballot language encompasses civil unions and domestic partnerships; and, WHEREAS, over 130 Virginia attorneys and legal scholars, including two former Attorneys General, Governor Tim Kaine, and the League of Women Voters, among many others, have expressed serious concern about the unintended consequences of the broad language of the proposed amendment; and, WHEREAS, this proposed amendment would, in effect, create a constitutional bar to any legal recognition of unmarried relationships for both same and different sex couples, including permanent prohibition on the ability of city government and the school system to offer benefits such as health insurance to unmarried employees that would be equal to • those offered to married employees; and,