Governor Warner Amends Gay Marriage, Feticide Bill
Richmond, Va. (AP) - Gov. Mark R. Warner has amended bills passed by the General Assembly that deny gay couples the benefits of marriage, make killing a fetus a felony and allow people with high school educations to home-school their children.
By a Thursday midnight deadline, he signed legislation that imposes harsh new penalties on drunk drivers, creates scholarship programs for schools shuttered in desegregation battles 40 years ago and allows Richmond voters to directly elect their mayor.

Warner vetoed only two minor bills, one of them at the request of its sponsor.
The gay marriage bill by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, denies the privileges of marriage to gay couples in "a civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement."

Warner's amendment applies the restrictions only to same-sex couples in a civil union and deletes partnerships or other arrangements.

"I do not support same-sex marriage," Warner wrote in a message explaining his amendment. But he expressed "grave doubts" about the bill's constitutionality because it could limit the right of all couples - gay and straight - to enter into contracts.