Despite the objections of Virginia Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli - who seems to think Virginia and the Virginia General Assembly are somehow exempt from federal equal protection requirements - the Virginia Juvenile Justice Board vote to retain a ban on discriminating based on sexual orientation at its residential centers. Sadly, Cuccinelli can never rest unless LGBT Virginians are subject to open discrimination and abuse on every front. To say that the man is an utter assh*le is an understatement. Common decency should require that no one be mistreated and subjected to discrimination yet Uber-Christian Cuccinelli and his puppeteers at The Family Foundation don't grasp that fact. The Virginian Pilot has coverage with these highlights:*
Virginia's Board of Juvenile Justice retained a ban on discriminating based on sexual orientation at its residential centers, despite concerns that it doesn't specifically have that authority. . . . The board voted 4-1 — with Chairman Barbara J. Myers the lone dissenter — to reaffirm including specific protections based on sexual orientation in Department of Juvenile Justice regulations.
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The group went against advice from a staff lawyer from the attorney general's office who said the state constitution equally protects all people and that sexual orientation hasn't been designated for specific protection under the Virginia Human Rights Act.
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Lara K. Jacobs said that in adopting the anti-bias language, the board risks creating a right that hasn't been enumerated by the General Assembly. Board member Aida L. Pacheco responded: "We're not creating a right, we're trying to prevent discrimination."
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About 800 young offenders are in the Department of Juvenile Justice system on a daily basis.
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