January 29, 2013 10:12AM 

# Virginia Is — at Last — for Lovers? 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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Never say that progress doesn’t happen. The Commonwealth of Virginia may be — in 2013 — about to [repeal](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/virginia-love-shack-bill_n_2567353.html) its longstanding law against (heterosexual) cohabitation by unmarried persons. The legislature may also [compensate](http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_702a5d86-6510-11e2-b238-001a4bcf6878.html) people who were forcibly sterilized by the state — as late as 1979. The state’s [multiple](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6204-2005Feb7.html) [bans](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36314-2004Jun12.html) on gay marriage remain in force, of course. But progress has to start somewhere.

I wrote about Virginia’s long record of intrusions into the private lives of its citizens in my article “[Virginia Is for (Homoracial, Heterosexual, Mentally Adequate) Lovers](http://reason.com/archives/2005/04/28/virginia-is-for-homoracial-het)” at rea​son​.com a few years ago. And about the state’s [gay marriage ban](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/marriage-measure-is-amendment-too-far) in 2006.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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