Can Virginia Ban Gays in Its Military?

I have previously commented on the proposed legislation threatened by Del. Bob Marshall - Virginia's gay hater extraordinaire (pictured at left) - that would seek to bar gays from the Virginia National Guard. In my view, it's yet another example of Marshall's bizarre obsession with gays which makes me increasingly suspect the man is another Ed Schrock: voting for anti-gay legislation and then looking for clandestine gay sex on the side. Mother Jones has a piece that likewise looks at Marshall's intended effort to once again try to stigmatize and marginalize gay Virginians and the likely invalidity of any such law under federal law. Perhaps the federal government ought to tell Marshall that it will move all of its federal military operations to a more gay friendly state and destroy Virginia's economy in the process (Virginia receives one the largest amounts of federal defense spending annually). Then Loudoun County residents might send Mr. Marshall into a much needed retirement. Here are highlights from Mother Jones:
*
Just two days after the Senate voted to allow gays to serve openly in the US military, Virginia statehouse delegate Bob Marshall is crafting a bill that would take a big chunk out of the federal government's expected repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Marshall proposes a full ban of gays in the Virginia National Guard, insisting that the Constitution gives individual states power over "the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia."
*
It's not the first time Marshall's railed against federal power. He's decried "Obamacare" as "a power grab by the Obama Administration and Congress to extend their insidious reach further into our private lives" and sympathizes with activists who favor a "Repeal Amendment"—a constitutional amendment that would give states the right to disobey any federal laws they find objectionable.
*
At the same time, Marshall's libertarian, individual rights-based talk doesn't square with some of his own positions: He's best known in the state as an ardent opponent of abortion and gay rights. He sponsored a successful 2006 amendment to the state's constitution that banned gay marriage. And in the late '80s, he was the research director of the American Life League, arguing that all birth control should be illegal. In 1989, when asked by a Boston Globe reporter whether abortion should be permitted in cases of incest, he replied, "What if incest is voluntary?...Sometimes it is."
*
[E]even if Marshall's proposal can pass muster with Virginia's legislative and executive branches, it's bloody unlikely to pass either the judiciary's or the military's standards. Cotton Puryear, the communications director for Virginia's Department of Military Affairs, declined to offer any comment on Marshall's proposal or the expected DADT repeal, saying that all offices were awaiting final guidance from the Department of Defense. But he did stress that "a Virginia Guard soldier has to meet the same standards...as a federal active-duty soldier." Once the state's recruiters select their candidates, they're processed for the service on a national level, going through the military's regional recruiting stations. . . In essence, Virginia Guard soldiers and airmen will serve alongside federal troops throughout their careers—including gays and lesbians, once DADT repeal becomes law.