After Gov. Abigail Spanberger trounced her in Virginia, Winsome Earle-Sears targets marriage equality

Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is returning to the campaign trail less than a year after voters decisively rejected her bid for governor. She is not moderating the anti-LGBTQ+ positions that helped define her candidacy. She is building a new campaign around them.Earle-Sears has launched what she calls the “Life and Marriage Tour,” a statewide effort urging Virginians to reject proposed constitutional amendments protecting reproductive freedom and marriage equality in the November election. The Republican plans to take her message to churches, community organizations and local leaders, though specific tour stops have not been announced.In an email to supporters, Earle-Sears said the amendments “raise serious concerns” and could alter principles important to Virginians, ABC affiliate WRIC reported last week. “That is why our efforts are focused not only on informing voters, but also encouraging them to carefully consider these proposals and vote NO on both amendments,” she said.Related: GOP candidate claims firing people for being gay ‘is not discrimination’ in Virginia governor’s debate The marriage amendment would remove the ban on same-sex marriage that Virginia voters placed in the state constitution in 2006. It would instead affirm that two adults may marry regardless of their sex, gender or race and require the state to treat all legally valid marriages equally. Voters will decide the issue on November 3.Equality Virginia Advocates Executive Director Narissa Rahaman said Earle-Sears was reviving the same politics voters had already rejected.“While Winsome Earle-Sears spends her fall peddling the same anti-LGBTQ+ attacks that Virginians rejected by double digits last year, real families who’ve built lives together will be focused on protecting themselves from government interference and out-of-touch politicians,” Rahaman said in a statement to The Advocate.The existing provision, known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment, define