Virginia now (once again) open for discrimination against gays

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell

When Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA) took office in 2006, one of his first acts was to sign into law an anti-discrimination bill that included everything, including gender, religion, ethnicity – and also sexual orientation. Seems like a rather sensible, if not to say utterly obvious, bit of legislation, no? Well, apparently, not to the new wingnutty governor, Bob McDonnell (Republican, of course), who made sure that only a few weeks upon entering office, the anti-discrimination bill was slightly reworked – with the sexual orientation protection sneakily removed.

McDonnell (R) on Feb. 5 signed an executive order that prohibits discrimination "on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, political affiliation, or against otherwise qualified persons with disabilities," as well as veterans.

It rescinds the order that Gov. Tim Kaine signed Jan. 14, 2006 as one of his first actions. After promising a "fair and inclusive" administration in his inaugural address, Kaine (D) added veterans to the non-discrimination policy - and sexual orientation.

McDonnell's office sent along this memo from his chief of staff that they have suggested to reporters prevents any and all discrimination. It reads, in part:

It shall be the policy of the office of the Governor to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace, encourage excellence by rewarding achievement based on merit, and prohibit discrimination for any reason. Hiring, promotion, discipline and termination of employees shall be based on qualifications, performance and results.

Oh, that all sounds nice and reasonable at face value. But, if this new policy truly is all-inclusive and protects all workers from any sort of discrimination that isn’t based solely on their “qualifications, performance and results”, then why are there two such bills? If any and all discrimination is ruled out in the second memo, then what’s the point of keeping the first policy, sans the protection for sexual orientation? Or, if the first was judged good enough, then why the need for the second memo, clarifying how there will supposedly be no discrimination, period?

Of course, considering the context, that McDonnell was so quick and eager to strike down the sexual orientation protection from the original anti-discrimination bill, it only becomes apparent that this is just another case of a conservative wingnut declaring open season for anti-gay discrimination.

(via Dispatches From the Culture Wars)