Virginia's Largest Employers Urge Passage of LGBT Non-Discrimination Bills

For years Virginia Republicans claimed they were the "pro-business" party yet for decades made Virginia businesses less competitive in their ability to recruit top talent and employees by pandering to anti-gay hate groups like The Family Foundation and "Christian" extremists.  Now, with the change of control of the Virginia General Assembly to the Democrats, LGBT appear poised to gain long over due non-discrimination protections.  In a recent letter, 30 of Virginia's largest employers (locally, that includes Newport News Shipbuilding) have urged passage of the Virginia Values Act that would end anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation and health care access.  The letter can be found here.  Virginia Business Magazine looks at the development.  Here area article excerpts:

More than 30 Virginia employers — including Altria Group Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Capital One Financial Corp. and Dominion Energy — on Monday sent a letter to Virginia lawmakers asking for comprehensive lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) nondiscrimination protections.

The letter addressed to House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, and Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Falls Church, states that employees, their families and customers deserve equal opportunities at work and in daily life.

“Because many LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ workers prefer to live and work in communities with nondiscrimination protections, such a law will give Virginia’s employers tangible advantages in recruitment and retention,” reads the letter released by the Virginia Values Coalition, a statewide group pushing for passage of the Virginia Values Act, which would prohibit LGBTQ discrimination in Virginia.

“Business leaders know that a welcoming Virginia is crucial to their economic competitiveness,” said Kasey Suffredini, Freedom for All Americans CEO and national campaign director. “Nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Virginians and visitors will make it easier for businesses to recruit talented workers, to expand investments in the state, and to attract tourism business.” The crossover companies (companies that both signed the letter and were recognized as a best place to work for LGBTQ equality) included Altria, Capital One, Dominion Energy, Hilton and Nestlé USA Inc. “Virginians and businesses agree — it is past time for LGBTQ people in the commonwealth to have comprehensive nondiscrimination protections,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “These protections are good for business, good for tourism, good for the economy, and most importantly, vital for the 250,000+ LGBTQ adults living in Virginia. It’s heartening to see so many Virginia businesses publicly support these protections and push for equality for all.”

Amazon Removes Books Pushing Of Ex-Gay Torture

Expect to hear shrieks from Christofascists that they are being censored or even persecuted by Amazon which has ceased selling books advocating "conversion therapy,"a debunked, fraudulent therapy pushed by charlatans and shysters masquerading as legitimate therapists (Michele Bachmann and her husband run one of these fraudulent clinics).  One of the high priests of this harmful scam was Joseph Nicilosi who sought to give a false veneer of science and legitimacy to what in truth is snake oil at best and a deliberately harmful practice at worse. The end goal of conversion therapy? First, to enrich its practitioners who prey on desperate and gullible individuals, and second, to support the false claim that sexual orientation is a "choice" and, therefore, no LGBT non-discrimination protections are needed.  A piece in NBC News looks at this welcomed move by Amazon.  Here are highlights:

Amazon has removed English-language books by a man largely considered “the father of conversion therapy” from its site following mounting pressure from LGBTQ activists.

Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, founder of the now-shuttered Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic, as well as the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), authored several how-to guides directed to parents of LGBTQ youth, including “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality.” His books are some of the most well-known works about conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

“I would say many survivors of conversion therapy could trace their trauma to Nicolosi,” Sam Brinton, head of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project and a survivor of conversion therapy, told NBC News. “His work lent credibility under the guise of ‘science’ to conversion therapy, even though the practice has been disputed and discredited as dangerous and harmful by medical experts.”

According to The Trevor Project’s 2019 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 2 in 3 LGBTQ youths reported that someone tried to convince them to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, and youths who have undergone conversion therapy are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as those who did not.

Though activists have been urging Amazon to remove the books for several months, as evinced by a Change.org position that has amassed more than 82,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon, one man in particular made it his mission to prevent the company from selling the books.

Roger Alan first learned about Nicolosi’s books from Peterborough International Christian Centre, a church in his native United Kingdom, around three months ago. The church planned to show “Flying Blind,” a video about conversion therapy, to its parishioners, and when met with widespread criticism, it defended the screening by referring to Nicolosi’s work.

While the church ultimately canceled the event, the books remained available for purchase on Wordery, an online bookseller, and Amazon.

Alan said he reached out to both sites and called for the books’ removal. Wordery removed the books the next day, but Amazon informed him that his request would be passed along to the “relevant team.”

After a month had passed with no action, Alan reached out the British Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association — organizations that have acknowledged the harm associated with conversion therapy — in an attempt to gain medical and legal context to strengthen his request. The BPS calls conversion therapy “unethical” and the APA says it has "serious potential to harm young people because they present the view that the sexual orientation of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth is a mental illness or disorder, and they often frame the inability to change one's sexual orientation as a personal and moral failure."

Then, three months after he submitted his first request, something changed. While Alan was completing his daily ritual of searching for Nicolosi’s books on Amazon on Tuesday, he realized the English-language versions of the books were no longer available (some of the works can still be found in Spanish and Portuguese).

Amazon has not contacted Alan about its removal of the books, but the company confirmed to NBC News that several titles by Nicolosi are no longer available and that it reserves the right to not sell books that go against its content guidelines.

Last December, Amazon removed a gay conversion therapy app from a religious group called Living Hope Ministries, which included anti-gay podcasts, articles and devotionals.

“These books were outrightly lying to parents on how they could cure their children from being gay or trans and essentially teach ways you can mentally and physically abuse your child.

“These books will still be accessible and will still be a risk for youth,” Brinton, the co-founder of 50 Bills 50 States, the largest campaign to protect LGBTQ youths from conversion therapy in the U.S., said. “But you can compare removing them to the surgeon general announcing smoking is dangerous: People now know the side effects of the practice.”

“The best way to save lives is to pass legislation,” Brinton added, noting that in the last 30 months, 13 laws have been passed protecting minors against conversion therapy. Currently 18 states, along with the District of Columbia, ban the practice on minors.

The New Economy and the Trump Economic Rump

A billboard in West Des Moines, Iowa, in January 2016.

Time and time over the years I have argued that rural areas that reject modernity, cling to right wing Christianity and remain outwardly racist are cutting their own throats economically and thriving businesses increasingly locate in urban and/ suburban areas that offer better educated work forces and are more hostile to racial bigotry and religious extremism.  Here in Virginia, both the McAuliffe and now the Northam gubernatorial administrations have pushed a "welcoming to all" effort to attract new businesses to the state.  Sadly, it's a hard sell to parts of Virginia like Southwest Virginia or the area along the southern border from Emporia westward where racism and right wing religion predominate.   Yet, as a column in the New York Times lays out, right wing Republican areas are slowly dying - in no small part because of their hostility to diversity and political liberalism.  The recent announcement by Amazon of its new headquarters locations and the results of the 2018 midterm elections underscore the argument of the column.  Here are column highlights:   

A little over a year ago, Amazon invited cities and states to offer bids for a proposed second headquarters. This set off a mad scramble over who would gain the dubious privilege of paying large subsidies in return for worsened traffic congestion and higher housing prices. (Answer: New York and greater D.C.)

But not everyone was in the running. From the beginning, Amazon specified that it would put the new facility only in a Democratic congressional district.

O.K., that’s not literally what Amazon said. It only limited the competition to “metropolitan areas with more than one million people” and “urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent.” But in the next Congress the great majority of locations meeting those criteria will, in fact, be represented by Democrats.

Over the past generation, America’s regions have experienced a profound economic divergence. Rich metropolitan areas have gotten even richer, attracting ever more of the nation’s fastest growing industries. Meanwhile, small towns and rural areas have been bypassed, forming a sort of economic rump left behind by the knowledge economy.

Amazon’s headquarters criteria perfectly illustrate the forces behind that divergence. Businesses in the new economy want access to large pools of highly educated workers, which can be found only in big, rich metropolitan areas. And the location decisions of companies like Amazon draw even more high-skill workers to those areas.

In other words, there’s a cumulative, self-reinforcing process at work that is, in effect, dividing America into two economies. And this economic division is reflected in political division.

In 2016, of course, the parts of America that are being left behind voted heavily for Donald Trump. . . . . But this was, it turns out, fighting the last war. Trumpism turned America’s lagging regions solid red, but the backlash against Trumpism has turned its growing regions solid blue.

Why have lagging regions turned right while successful regions turned left? It doesn’t seem to be about economic self-interest. True, Trump promised to bring back traditional jobs in manufacturing and coal mining — but that promise was never credible. And the orthodox Republican policy agenda of cutting taxes and shrinking social programs, which is basically what Trump is following in practice, actually hurts lagging regions, which depend a lot on things like food stamps and disability payments, much more than it hurts successful areas.

As documented in “Identity Crisis,” an important new book analyzing the 2016 election, what distinguished Trump voters wasn’t financial hardship but “attitudes related to race and ethnicity.”

Yet these attitudes aren’t divorced from economic change. Even if they’re personally doing well, many voters in lagging regions have a sense of grievance, a feeling that they’re being disrespected by the glittering elites of superstar cities; this sense of grievance all too easily turns into racial antagonism. Conversely, however, the transformation of the G.O.P. into a white nationalist party alienates voters — even white voters — in those big, successful metropolitan areas. So the regional economic divide becomes a political chasm.

We can and should do a lot to improve the lives of Americans in lagging regions. . . . . . But restoring these regions’ dynamism is much harder, because it means swimming against a powerful economic tide.

And the sense of being left behind can make people angry even if their material needs are taken care of. That is what we see, for example, in the former East Germany . . .

So the bitter division we see in America — the ugliness infecting our politics — may have deep economic roots, and there may be no practical way to make it go away.

But the ugliness doesn’t have to win. Most rural white voters still support Trumpism, but they aren’t a majority, and in the midterms a significant number of those voters also broke with the white nationalist agenda. . . . the better angels of our nature can still prevail.

Richard Florida who coined the term the "creative class" also noted that the more accepting a city of region was of gays, the stronger its technology based economy (Florida called this the "gay index").  If one looks at the economically lagging red states - or regions of Virginia - the common thread is that they are anti-gay and racist.   These aren't traits forced on them by outsiders.  Rather, it is the inbred bigotry and right wing religious extremism of the local populace which is the root of the problem.  True, Republicans play to these prejudices to win votes, but in doing so, they and those who vote for them are merely making the downward economic spiral accelerate.  Blacks and Hispanic immigrants are not the source of these regions' economic problems.  If they want to see the real cause, the locals need only look in the mirror.

Amazon to Split New HQ Between Crystal City, Virginia and Long Island City, New York

Long Island City, New York

Crystal City, Virginia

It is expected that Amazon will announce today that its new headquarters will be split between Crystal City, Virginia and Long Island City, New York, handing Virginia governor Ralph Northam a major economic victory.  The other victor is the Long Island City portion of New York City which has already seen amazing redevelopment and gentrification over the last 20 years.  When the announcement comes, it will underscore the reality that red states are making themselves increasingly unattractive to progressive corporations and businesses that want educated populations that are welcoming to a diverse work force.  A piece in the New York Times looks at Amazon's decision and its likely economic impact.  Here are highlights (the Washington Post also has a piece here): 

After conducting a yearlong search for a second home, Amazon has finalized plans to have about 50,000 employees in two locations, according to a person familiar with the decision-making process.

The company has decided to move to the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, and to the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, the person said. Amazon, which plans to officially announce the decision on Tuesday, already has more employees in those two areas than anywhere else outside of Seattle, its home base, and the Bay Area.

The need to hire tens of thousands of high-tech workers has been the driving force behind the search, leading many to expect it to land in a major East Coast metropolitan area. Many experts had pointed to Crystal City as a front-runner, because of its strong public transit, educated work force and proximity to Washington.

About 1,800 people in advertising, fashion and publishing already work for Amazon in New York, and roughly 2,500 corporate and technical employees work in Northern Virginia and Washington. Amazon announced plans for a second headquarters in September 2017, saying that the company was growing faster than it could hire in its hometown, Seattle. The company said it would invest more than $5 billion over almost two decades in a second headquarters, hiring as many as 50,000 full-time employees that would earn more than $100,000 a year on average.

HQ2 would be the “full equal to our current campus in Seattle,” the company said. Picking multiple sites allows it to tap into two pools of talented labor and perhaps avoid being blamed for all of the housing and traffic woes of dominating a single area. It could also give the company greater leverage in negotiating tax incentives, experts said.

The HQ2 search sent states and cities into a frenzied bidding war. Some hired McKinsey & Company and other outside consultants to help them with their bids, investing heavily in courting Amazon and its promise of 50,000 jobs. Even half of that would amount to one of the largest corporate location deals on record, according to Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, which tracks corporate subsidies. “These are very big numbers,” he said.

As Amazon’s search dragged on, residents in many of the 20 finalist cities worried about the impact such a massive project could have on housing and traffic, as well as what potential tax incentives could cost the community. The decision to split HQ2 into two sites could alleviate some of that resistance.

Seattle has been one of the fastest growing cities in the country, in part because of Amazon’s growth. The company has about 45,000 employees in the city, and the company said it needed to hire more employees than the city could attract or absorb.

The piece in the Post notes as follows:

The choice of Crystal City in Arlington County as one of the winners could cement Northern Virginia’s reputation as a magnet for business and potentially reshape the Washington region into an eastern outpost of Silicon Valley over the next decade. The decision hands Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and local leaders the largest economic-development prize in a generation — one promising billions of dollars in capital investments alone — but could also put pressure on the region’s already steep housing prices, congested roads, and yawning divide between wealthy and low-income residents.

It also would represent a victory for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who had joked that he would change his name to “Amazon Cuomo” if necessary to land the project.

Virginia Republicans May Have Forfeited Virginia's Hopes for Amazon

Back during the 2018 session of the Virginia General Assembly a handful of Republicans - 5 to be exact - mostly from Hampton Roads killed every pro-LGBT bill pending during the session thanks to the handiwork of the Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates.  Similarly, Virginia Republicans refused to start the process to delete anti-gay laws from the Code of Virginia and Virginia Constitution even though the same had been ruled as unconstitutional by the federal courts.  At the time I and others warned that maintaining an anti-gay climate could destroy Virginia's chances to land Amazon's second headquarters facility even though Virginia has a pro-LGBT Governor, Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor.  Now, a piece in the Washington Post under scores that Virginia Republicans' decision to embrace bigotry and prostitute themselves to the hate and fear motivated Christofascists and groups like The Family Foundation - a hate group in all but formal designation - could inflict a huge economic loss on Virginia.  Here are article excerpts:  

When Amazon executives recently toured the Dallas-Fort Worth area, one of 20 finalists for a second company headquarters, local officials touted its growing workforce and low taxes as perfectly suited to accommodate 50,000 planned Amazon jobs.

But the local team also brought an unexpected guest: the Rev. Neil G. Cazares-Thomas, pastor of a predominantly gay megachurch in Dallas. He impressed upon the Amazon representatives how inclusive and welcoming the community has been to him, his husband and the 4,000 congregants at his church, according to people familiar with the meeting.

In the high-stakes contest to become Amazon.com’s new location, it may have been a shrewd move. Although the company’s search materials don’t make it explicit, Amazon has quietly made rights for and acceptance of gay and transgender people part of its criteria in choosing a second headquarters, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely.

As Amazon executives recently toured finalist locations to help select what they’ve dubbed HQ2, they asked public officials about what sort of “compatible cultural and community environment” — the wording from the company’s search parameters — each city offers, adding to speculation about whether Amazon will choose a liberal stronghold. In North Carolina, company representatives asked pointed questions of Gov. Roy Cooper (D) about several state policies such as the “bathroom bill,” which restricted the use of public facilities by transgender people, according to a person in the room. In another city, an Amazon executive groaned at the mention of proposed legislation in Georgia that would restrict funding for same-sex adoption, according to another person who attended the meeting between the company and state and local officials. Given the publicity and economic impact of the project, including as much as $5 billion in capital expenditures, Amazon’s push on gay and transgender rights may increase pressure on state and local policymakers who have either declined to institute equal-rights rules or passed laws some view as discriminatory. The sponsor of the Georgia bill, state Sen. William T. Ligon Jr. (R), said the issue of same-sex adoption wasn’t intended to be discriminatory . . . . . “If you’re against, then I think we need to think hard about whether you ought to come here,” he said. “We need to seriously consider whether we want you to come here.” That sentiment has not played well at Amazon, according to a person who has been on tour with Amazon as it meets with local officials. “I just think Atlanta’s out,” the person, who is not an Amazon employee, said.

The company’s search for a region of “compatible cultural” values is one of many issues it has said it’s considering as it chooses the new headquarters.  But gay rights has emerged as a focus for the company’s founder and chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos.
 Amazon’s second headquarters project is the biggest economic development prize — by a long shot — that many industry veterans say they have ever seen. . . . . For HQ2, the company estimates it will hire as many as 50,000 people, make $5 billion in capital investments and fill 8 million square feet of office space, which would be larger than the Pentagon.

Although Amazon is not sharing details of its meetings and requires nondisclosure agreements from bidders, its conversations with local officials are driving them to make or propose changes in an effort to woo the company. Some jurisdictions are pressing ahead with airport expansions or improvements that might impress Amazon.

While Amazon’s inquiries on gay rights may anger conservatives, LGBT advocates say the company is not going far enough.  One group wrote to Bezos asking that he not choose 11 locations in nine states that have not passed comprehensive legal protections for people based on their sexuality or gender. . . . “We’re talking about a decision that will affect the quality of life of thousands of people,” said David Mixner, a writer and activist who signed the letter. “If all they are concerned about is money, then they roundly deserve to be criticized.”

Officials in other regions have argued that if Amazon wants to maximize its support for the issue, it could relocate to — and bring change to — a politically red state.  With someone like Bezos around, city and business leaders in Dallas and Austin, both HQ2 finalists, say they could do more to change attitudes in the state. 

 Hopefully, Amazon will view Virginia in this last category.  It would either convert Republicans or - better yet - educate the population and usher in permanent minority status to Republicans.

Stock Market Is Having its Worst Second Quarter Since the Great Depression

It is still early in the month of April, but the second quarter of 2018 is off to a near record bad start even as Republicans are hoping and praying a strong economy will save their asses in November. What/who's to blame for the near record stock market drop?  Der Trumpenführer, of course.  Between fears of a trade war that will harm the U.S. economy, a record budget deficit thanks to the $1.5 trillion give away to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations, not "entitlements as claimed by the always lying Paul Ryan, and Trump's attacks on Amazon, the market took a major dive today.  In the process, many investors and average Americans with money in retirement and/or pension funds took a financial hit.  Fortune looks at today's ugly market drop.  Here are highlights:

U.S. stocks are on track to have their worst April start since 1929, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The S&P 500 index slumped 2.4 percent as of 1:10 p.m. in New York, a rout exceeded only by its 2.5 percent decline 89 years ago, a prelude to the devastating crash later that year that brought on the Great Depression. (Back then, the index only comprised 90 stocks.)

China’s retaliatory trade tariffs combined with President Donald Trump’s criticism of Amazon.com Inc. to send equities into a tailspin Monday. Shares in the online retailer tumbled, encouraging a sell-off in consumer discretionary and technology stocks. The S&P 500 broke through its 200-day moving average — a key technical support — sending volatility higher.

The stock slide also looks pretty bad when compared to the beginning of other quarters. Equities are on pace to lose more than on any other quarterly first day since October 2011, when stocks plummeted 2.8 percent, Bloomberg data show.

This from the New York Times should make investors and Republicans worried:

Even after a fast start to 2018, stock markets finished the first quarter down for the year — the first quarterly decline since 2015. It suggested that a period of calm and steadily rising markets had given way to a turbulent new era with a bearish bent.

The plunge continued Monday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index sinking 2.2 percent. Investors jettisoned shares of financial, technology and many other businesses, spooked at least in part by a tweet from Mr. Trump aimed at one of the country’s biggest companies: Amazon.

Monday’s decline left stocks down more than 4 percent so far in 2018. They are now down more than 10 percent from their peak in late January.

[S]ince February, a toxic stew of factors — many but certainly not all of them emanating from Washington — has polluted what had been the market’s placidly rising waters. And there’s little prospect of the messes dissipating anytime soon.

Monday’s dose of unnerving news was a presidential tweet aimed at Amazon, which Mr. Trump accused of hurting the United States Postal Service. Mr. Trump’s feud with the company has been going on sporadically since before he became president, but the onslaught has accelerated lately.

One thing is clear: The days of calm markets marching steadily higher, shattering one record after another, are gone for now. That carries risks for Mr. Trump, who spent the first year of his presidency as a stock-market cheerleader but in recent months has been mostly silent about the market’s gyrations.

It also could be a danger for the United States economy. Academic research suggests that long-term market declines can rub off on consumers, leading them to feel less affluent and therefore spend less money. That is bad news for an economy that hinges largely on zesty consumer spending.

The market’s decline over the past two months has been broad based. . . . .The tech sector has been the epicenter the stock market pain in recent weeks, hurt by concerns about trade friction with China — a key market and supplier for tech firms — and fears of tighter government regulation. Even before Monday’s fall, some $457 billion had been wiped off the sector’s total market value.

Even the shares of financial institutions — the companies that would most likely benefit from a looser regulatory environment favored by Republicans — have been battered. The sector dropped 2.1 percent Monday, with investors worried about an unfavorable lending environment. 

Republicans, of course, could end this easily: joint with Democrats in removing Trump from office.  He is unfit and a clear and present danger to the nation. 

Virginia Republicans Kill LGBT Bills, Give Amazon the Finger

Anti-gay bigot Del. Jason S. ­Miyares (R- Virginia Beach)

One hears Republicans ad nausea claiming to be the party of business and economic growth yet yesterday a small cabal of  Republicans on the House of Delegates General Laws subcommittee (i.e., Delegates Fowler, Wright, Knight, Bell, Richard P., Miyares) voted to kill four pro-LGBT bills and prevent them from getting a vote by the entire committee much less the full House.  And this was done in an atmosphere where Amazon is under growing pressure to turn down sites for its second headquarters with 50,000 jobs and a $5 billion investment. One of the bills killed would have afforded non-discrimination protections in housing. Another would have protected state employees from employment discrimination.  The excuse for action?  The usual bull shit about "protecting religious liberty" as if protecting bigots isn't a form of attack on those with differing religious beliefs.   With today's GOP, it is all about self-prostitution to the modern day Pharisee Christofascists.  The rights of so-called "Nones," Hindus, Muslims and others not subscribing to Christofacist hate and bigotry simply do not matter.  The lesson from this is that LGBT Virginians, their allies and Millennials MUST get organized and turn out at the polls in November, 2018, and again in November, 2019, and defeat Republicans in every election contest possible.  Locally, Del. Jason S. ­Miyares (R-Virginia Beach) and Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach/Chesapeake) need to be targeted for defeat in 2019.  The Washington Post looks at yesterday's disgusting event.  Here are highlights:

Bills meant to protect gay and transgender people from housing and employment discrimination died in a Republican-dominated House panel Thursday, prompting jeers of “Shame!” from activists who packed a Capitol hearing room.

On a straight party-line vote, members of a General Laws subcommittee voted 5 to 2 to kill four bills, some of which had already cleared the Republican-controlled state Senate, which tends to be more socially moderate than the House.

“The vast majority of fair-minded Virginians support these long-overdue protections that were passed with strong bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Senate,” said Marty Rouse, national field director of the Human Rights Campaign. “House Republican leaders are completely out of step with what voters made clear at the ballot box in November.”

Opponents of the bills contend that they could have interfered with religious freedom, with some suggesting that religious institutions such as Liberty University could be forced to let gay couples occupy its dorms for married students.

Only one Republican on the panel spoke to the measures before the votes. Del. Jason S. ­Miyares (R-Virginia Beach) said he was torn between the desire to “treat everybody with dignity and respect” and the need to protect religious freedom. He said he would be willing to work toward a compromise, but not this year. The four bills were all brought by Democrats, Sens. Adam P. Ebbin (Alexandria) and Jennifer T. Wexton (Loudoun) and Dels. Marcus B. Simon (Fairfax) and Mark H. Levine (Alexandria). Ebbin and Levine are two of only a few openly gay lawmakers. Last month, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed an executive order shortly after his inauguration banning such discrimination in government employment. One of the bills would have codified that into law. Jeff Caruso of the Virginia Catholic Conference said the bills could force faith-based colleges and organizations to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. . . . Bill Janis of the Family Foundation suggested the measures were unnecessary because the largest employers in Richmond already prohibit anti-discrimination in hiring. 

Note the toxic influence of the Catholic Church which remains an enemy of LGBT individuals and The Family Foundation, Virginia's leading hate group, to whom Virginia Republicans bow and genuflect. 

Will Virginia GOP Cause Northern Virginia to be Disqualified from Amazon’s HQ2 Selection?

The other day I noted how Indian Republicans seemly blew Indianapolis from consideration for Amazon's new Headquarters by refusing to approve protections for LGBT Indianans.   Seemly, prostituting themselves to the Christofascists in their state was deemed more important than landing 50,000 new jobs for the state.  Virginia Republicans have largely followed the wrongheaded behavior of their Indiana partmates so far in the 2018 by  session of the Virginia General Assembly.  Now, a number of activists are arguing that none of the 9 cities under consideration by Amazon in states without LGBT non-discrimination protections should be eliminated form consideration.  The activists' demand is, in fact, in keeping with Amazon's statement that it values "diversity and equality."  If Virginia loses out because of the GOP's love affair with bigots and bigotry, voters need to send them a message in both November 2018 and November 2019: vote Republicans at all levels out of office.  Meanwhile, call your representatives and state senators in the General Assembly and demand that the vote for passage of non-discrimination bills.  Here are story highlights on the issue: 

Should cities in states that don’t protect LGBT people from discrimination still be considered for Amazon’s second headquarters? Activists from across the nation are coming together to send a clear message to the e-retailer as they consider the options: “No Gay? No Way.”

The tech giant has been a leader in using corporate influence to benefit the LGBT community and has had a queer employee resource group for over a decade. So why are they considering locations that would take away the civil rights of any employees transferred out of the Seattle office?

“We were frankly just stunned that a company with such a great track record of equality and diversity had put all these states into the mix,” Conor Gaughan, the ad-hoc campaign’s manager told USA Today.

Nine out of the twenty finalists for Amazon’s HQ2 are in states that offer no protections for LGBT people. Some of the states are actively hostile to civil rights.

Austin and Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, Miami, Raleigh, N.C., and the D.C. suburbs of northern Virginia do not protect LGBT people from discrimination.

Indiana voted down a proposed hate crimes law this week because it included sexual orientation and gender identity.

Public schools in Texas are required to teach students that homosexuality is unnatural and unacceptable. Tennessee state law prohibits local governments from enacting nondiscrimination laws that include LGBT people.

Amazon’s requirements for the new location were clear, saying it requires “a compatible cultural and community environment” that includes “the presence and support of a diverse population.” Now advocates want them to comply with their own standards.

The coalition of activists plan a protest outside of Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle today, complete with a plane waving a “No Gay? No Way.” banner behind it. They will also be placing billboards on trucks to drive through Seattle streets with the logo emblazoned on them.

Call your senator and member of the House of Delegates today!

Virginia Republicans Need to Learn What Not to Do From Indiana

Despite a new governor who wants Virginia to be "open for business" and welcoming talent from wherever it may come, since the beginning of the 2018 legislative session, Virginia Republicans, especially in the Virginia Senate are demonstrating that (i) the learned nothing from their party's shellacking in the 2017 elections, and (ii) they will go to any lengths to thwart legislation that would grant LGBT Virginians a shred of equality in civil rights and non-discrimination protections.  Del. Bob Marshall may be gone from Richmond, but his spirit lives on amongst knuckle dragging Republicans.  A piece in LGBTQ Nation looks at how a similar mindset in Indiana has likely killed Indianapolis' chances to be the site of Amazon's new headquarters.  Would that Virginia Republicans would learn from Indiana's mistakes and cease striving to make Virginia toxic to companies like Amazon.  Here are article highlights:

Despite overwhelming support for a proposed hate crimes law, Indiana Republicans have squashed the idea to appease their religious right supporters. Indiana is one of only five states without a hate crimes law.

While Indianapolis was named one of twenty finalists for Amazon’s “HQ2” offices that would bring thousands of high paying jobs to the area, the Fortune 500 company was crystal clear that it would choose a location that values diversity and equality. Experts had already expressed reservations that Indiana would land the prime development and today’s decision only adds another nail to the coffin.

The state is still reeling from former Governor Mike Pence’s disastrous attempt to legalize discrimination against LGBT people, but now state Republicans have completely surrendered to the demands of a small minority that demands complete obedience. Pence infamously went on national television to defend the law he signed while surrounded by the state’s most vociferously anti-LGBT activists and refused to say whether he thought LGBT people should be discriminated against.

“Republicans reinforced just how out-of-touch they are with the majority of Hoosiers, blocking a policy nearly two-thirds of Hoosiers support and 45 other states have enacted,” Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said in an emailed statement.

“Today’s action proves Statehouse Republicans are more than willing to jeopardize Indianapolis’ shot at landing Amazon’s second headquarters to appease shadowy special interests. [Governor Eric] Holcomb’s inaction and Republicans’ appeasement of special interests may have just cost Hoosiers 50,000 good-paying jobs.”

Given the lunacy of both the GOP base in Virginia and the insanity of far too many Republicans in the General Assembly, it will be a crap shoot as to whether Virginia can enact legislation that will show that Virginia values the diversity and equality that companies like Amazon demand.  

Facebook, Google, Amazon, Starbucks and 24 Other Companies Urge Court To Strike Down Virginia's Gay Marriage

The list of household names filing amicus briefs asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to rule that Virginia's anti-gay Marshall-Newman Amendment is unconstitutional keeps on growing.  Now, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Starbucks and 24 other businesses have filed a brief urging the Court to strike down Virginia's gay marriage ban.   As noted before on this blog, anti-gay laws are bad for business and harm companies' ability to recruit the best and the brightest employees and impeded some businesses from even moving into Virginia.  Among the surprising business joining in the brief is Mormon owned Marriott International. And as the amicus briefs are filed, it become increasingly clear that religious based hate and bigotry alone were and are the motivation behind the Marshall-Newman Amendment.  On Top Magazine looks at this latest amicus brief filing.  Here are highlights:

Twenty-eight companies have filed an amicus brief urging a federal appeals court to affirm a lower court's ruling declaring invalid Virginia's ban on gay marriage.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond is scheduled to hear arguments in the case next month.

“The denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples in Virginia goes against our core values and principles,” the companies wrote in a 50-page brief filed Friday. “As employers, we recognize the value of diversity, and we want to do business in jurisdictions that similarly understand the need for a society that enables all married persons to 'live with pride in themselves and their unions,' and that supports us in honoring all of our married employees.”

Companies joining the brief include Amazon, American International Group, Blu Homes, CBS Corp., eBay, Equality NC, Facebook, 500 BC, Google, Intel Corp., Jackson Hole Group, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Levi Strauss & Co., Marriott International, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, McKinstry Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Pfizer, Oracle America, Qualcomm, Replacements, Starbucks, Sun Life Financial Services, Support.com, United Therapeutics Corp., Viacom and Witeck Communications.

In contrast the the growing array of supporters who want the Marshall-Newman Amendment struck down, the religious extremists at The Family Foundation, a hate group in all but formal designation, have announced a 40 day fast to protest the lower court's ruling that like Virginia's former bans on interracial marriage, bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional.  This action underscores that religious based discrimination - promoted through a fraudulent campaign and advertisements - is the ONLY true motivation behind the ban's original enactment.  To date, eleven out of eleven federal courts have rejected feigned reasons other than religious belief for such bans across the country.  Here's the money quote from TFF's announcement of the fast: 

Pagan philosophies, a secular humanist education establishment and an entertainment industry that is absolutely determined in pushing the envelope on decency and morality have all combined to turn this great land into a country that our forefathers could not even begin to recognize. 

These folks are not only insane, but they are a threat to constitutional government.