a constitutional amendment, known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment, that would ban same-sex marriage and any "legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage." That same day, the Virginia State Senate voted 30-10 in favor of the constitutional amendment. An amendment to the Constitution of Virginia requires approval by two succeeding elected legislatures. As such, on January 13, 2006, the House of Delegates voted 73-22 in favor of the amendment, and on February 17, the State Senate voted 29-11 in favor. On November 7, 2006, voters approved the constitutional amendment, which took effect on January 1, 2007. In January 2016, Senator Adam Ebbin introduced a resolution which proposed to repeal Virginia's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The resolution died without a vote. Federal lawsuits Bostic v. Schaefer This case was previously styled as Bostic v. McDonnell and as Bostic v. Rainey before being appealed. On July 18, 2013, two gay men filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. A lesbian couple, married in California and parents of a teenager, joined the case as plaintiffs. In January 2014, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and Governor Terry McAuliffe announced their support for the suit. Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen heard oral arguments on February 4, 2014, with attorneys for the Clerk of the Circuit Court for the City of Norfolk defending the state's ban on same-sex marriage. On February 13, 2014, Judge Wright Allen ruled that Virginia's statutory and constitutional ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on May 13. On July 28, the Fourth Circuit ruled 2–1 in favor of striking down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed enforcement of the ruling on August 20, though on October 6, the court rejected Virginia's appeal in brief, allowing the Fourth Circuit to immediately lift the stay of the ruling. Same-sex couples thus began marrying in Virginia from 1 p.m. on October 6, 2014. The first same-sex couple to marry in the Commonwealth was Lindsey Oliver and Nicole Pries in Richmond, Virginia. Harris v. Rainey On August 1, 2013, two lesbian couples, one of which married in the District of Columbia in 2011, filed a lawsuit, Harris v. McDonnell, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia represented by Lambda Legal and the ACLU. They challenged both the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples and its refusal to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. They asked the court to recognize their suit as a class action on behalf of all same-sex couples in Virginia who seek to marry or have married elsewhere. On December 23, Judge Michael F. Urbanski removed the Governor as a defendant, leaving the state registrar of vital records and the county clerk who denied a license to one of the couples. On January 31, the judge certified the case as a class action, now restyled as Harris v. Rainey. On March 31, Judge Urbanski ordered Harris stayed until the Fourth Circuit issues a decision in Bostic. Cohabitation On April 28, 2016, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that cohabitation laws also apply to same-sex couples. Specifically, the Court ruled that a same-sex couple can be legally considered to have a relationship analogous to marriage, and if they had been in one for a year the partner no longer has to pay spousal support. Statistics In the approximately 10-month period subsequent to same-sex marriage being legal in Virginia (October 6,