Virginia Republicans Kill Remaining Pro-Gay Bills

Despite the fact that a majority of Virginians support nondiscrimination protections for LGBT state employees and even the conservative Richmond Times Dispatch called for passage of the measure, Virginia Republicans in the GOP controlled House of Delegates killed SB 785 in committee and never allowed it to reach the House floor for a vote.   Why?  Because the hate group, The Family Foundation gets what it wants from prostitute like Republicans that who lick the shoes of TFF president Victoria Cobb after sticking their noses so far up her ass its a wonder they don't suffocate.  Hate and bigotry ALWAYS triumph with the Virginia GOP.  Here are details from the Washington Blade on the fate of SB 785 and a bill that would have made Virginia's marriage laws gender neutral:

Members of the Virginia House of Delegates on Thursday killed two bills that would have extended rights to the commonwealth’s LGBT residents.

The House General Laws Subcommittee tabled Senate Bill 785 that would have banned anti-LGBT discrimination against state and local government employees.

The Virginia Senate earlier this month approved the measure that state Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) introduced. Lieutenant Gov. Ralph Northam cast the tie-breaking vote that allowed SB 785 to pass.

“It is shameful that this subcommittee can’t come together in support of a common sense bill that reflects the beliefs held by the majority of Virginians,” said James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, in a statement. “Ideology should not stand in the way of achieving fairness and equality — something that would benefit all Virginians.”

Members of the House Courts of Justice Subcommittee on Thursday tabled Senate Bill 1211 that would have added gender-neutral language to Virginia’s marriage laws.

“It does not remove any references to husbands or wives in the code,” said gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who sponsored SB 1211, on Thursday during a hearing on his bill. “It just merely says that all legally married people… we use the word ‘spouse,’ would be subject to the same laws and they should not be subject to language confusion or worse yet be able to exploit the language loopholes to avoid their responsibilities under Virginia law.”

The state Senate on Feb. 3 approved SB 1211.

The House Courts of Justice Subcommittee tabled the measure one day before the first anniversary of U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen’s ruling that struck down Virginia’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Gays and lesbians began to legally marry in the commonwealth last Oct. 6 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that upheld Allen’s decision.

“The realities of 2015 are here, like it or not,” said Ebbin during Thursday’s hearing on SB 1211 before the House Courts of Justice Subcommittee. “We owe the Virginians who are legally married couples recognition under the law.”

The Virginia GOP has become something truly ugly and the ugliness traces back to the rise of the Christofascists in the party.  That's right, the racism, war against women, and anti-gay jihad all increased with the rise of the "godly folk" in the Republican Party of Virginia.  Come November, voters need to get off their butts and vote the Republicans out!

Richmond Times Dispatch: No Rational Reason To Oppose LGBT Employment Protections

As noted many times, in Virginia LGBT citizens have ZERO state law employment protections from private employer bigotry.  Worse yet, even the Commonwealth's own agencies and departments are currently free to fire gays at will simply because they are gay.  A bill has cleared the Virginia Senate - with Lt. Governor Ralph Northam casting the deciding vote - and now faces an uncertain fate in the Virginia House of Delegates which sadly typically acts as an arm of The Family Foundation, a rabidly anti-gay hate group which also opposes modernity in general.  Now, the Richmond Times Dispatch (one of the most conservative newspapers in Virginia) has an editorial demanding that the GOP controlled House of Delegates pass the LGBT employment non-discrimination bill that only applies to state workers.  Here are editorial highlights:

The astounding thing about Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam’s tiebreaking vote on a hiring-discrimination bill was that he had to cast it in the first place.
The measure Northam voted for would forbid state agencies to discriminate in hiring based on sexual orientation or gender identity. That has long been state policy thanks to gubernatorial edict, but the principle should not depend on the occupant of the Executive Mansion. It should be law.

Free-market purists sometimes contend that the right to freedom of association means employers should be allowed to discriminate in hiring for the private sector. But government is not the private sector. Government has no rights — only powers and obligations. And one of its most important obligations is to guarantee equal treatment under law. There is no rational reason to let the commonwealth do otherwise.

“Virginians’ employment should be based on their job performance, not on other irrelevant characteristics,” says the bill’s sponsor, Sen. A. Donald McEachin. That is entirely right. . . . Some Virginia lawmakers clearly hold objections to homosexuality — but their personal reservations have no business affecting state policy. When it crosses over to the House, McEachin’s bill should receive swift passage.

I hope the bill passes, but I will not be holding my breath.  What The Family Foundation wants - which in this case is for LGBT Virginians to continue to be third class citizens - is what it usually gets from the Virginia GOP.