Terry McAuliffe to Veto Bill On Religious Expression in Schools

Here in Virginia as elsewhere Republicans have been busy passing bills that seek to grant special rights to far right Christians and to empower them to trample on the civil rights of others.  A case in point is a GOP backed bill that claims to be aimed at protecting the rights of students to "express religious viewpoints" on public school grounds.  If enacted, the law would allow proselytizing on school grounds and allow denigration of gays if anti-gay slurs reflected "religious beliefs" of the bullies.  It is but another example of the Christofascists seeking exemption from the laws that govern everyone else.  Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has stated that he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk.  Here are highlights from the Roanoke Times:

Gov. Terry McAuliffe will veto a bill aimed at protecting the rights of students to express religious viewpoints on public school grounds if the legislation reaches his desk, his office said Monday.

A McAuliffe spokesman outlined the governor’s opposition to the bill after it cleared a House of Delegates committee Monday morning. The legislation, which passed the Senate last month, should come up for a vote in the full House later this week.

“He’s very concerned about the constitutionality of the bill, but he’s also concerned about the unintended consequences,” McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson County, said the veto threat is premature.  “As the Bible calls a double-minded man, if he’s going to veto a freedom of expression for students in school on religious viewpoints, yet his first executive order he signs is a freedom for sexual orientation, [for] bisexual people to express themselves, I find a little double standard there,” Carrico said.

The House Education Committee advanced Carrico’s bill (SB 236) Monday on a 12-10 vote, despite warnings from representatives of Virginia school boards and school superintendents that the measure will invite lawsuits. Three Republicans, including Joseph Yost of Pearisburg, joined the committee’s seven Democrats in opposing the bill.

The Senate passed the bill last month on a largely party-line vote of 20-18. The bill passed before special elections won by two Democratic senators were decided. The Senate, now evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, likely would sustain McAuliffe’s veto.

Carrico’s bill would require every Virginia school division to adopt a policy permitting student speakers to express religious viewpoints at any school event in which students are allowed to publicly speak. Those events would be treated as “limited public forums.” Principals would be required to provide disclaimers to underscore that school divisions don’t endorse the speakers’ religious views.

The last thing Virginia needs is religious proselytizing and the denigration of other students in its public schools.  Kudos to McAuliffe for seeing this bill for the batshitery that it is.