A half-assed measure to try and appease rightful outrage

A half-measure won’t hide your bigotry, Governor

There’s been a fair bit of controversy in Virginia campuses lately since the news broke that the revised anti-discrimination bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell had its protections for sexual orientation conspicuously written out. In fact, the law was written in such a way that not only were colleges and universities not required to specifically ban anti-gay discrimination, they weren’t even allowed to, and any currently existing policies prohibiting anti-gay discrimination were invalidated.

Well, in an attempt to try and appease public discontentment over his image of someone who apparently doesn’t care if people are discriminated against simply because they’re gay or not, McDonnell has now issued a directive to all 102,000 state employees specifically prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. He further warns that anyone found engaging in such discrimination would face anything from reprimanding to termination.

Of course, my question is: why the hell is this even necessary? Especially considering how sexual orientation was already present in the anti-discrimination bill that was signed into law by the previous Virginia governor, Tim Kaine (D)?

In the end, the most sensible and obvious answer is that McDonnell truly is an anti-gay bigot who doesn’t give a rat’s ass if gay sand lesbians are harassed based on their sexuality, and who only send this directive to try and silence the outrage his wingnutty faux pas has caused.

(via @washingtonpost)