The Right Wreaks Institutionalized Homophobia in VA

In yet another example that elections have consequences and not always pleasant ones, right wing Virginia Attorney General Cuccinnelli, seems to see his election as an opportunity to further rollback civil rights for gays and lesbians in the state.  In an action diametrically opposed to the VA state slogan “Virginia is for lovers”, the AG has sent letters to all of the public universities and colleges  telling them to eliminate and dismantle any policies with respect to banning job discrimination for gay and lesbian employees reports the Washington Post.

VA Rescinds Job Discrimination Protections in State Employment for GLBT Community

Given the Equal Opportunity Policy of the University of Virginia states they comply with”the Governor’s Executive Order on Equal Opportunity” (see below and here, bold and italics added) or in the case of this new Governor executive order eliminating opportunity, I suspect that legally they’ll have a battle on this one.

“The University of Virginia is committed to equal employment opportunity and affirmative action.  To fulfill this commitment, the University administers its programs, procedures and practices without regard to age, color, disability, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation or veteran status, and operates both affirmative action and equal opportunity programs, consistent with resolutions of the Board of Visitors and with federal and state requirements, including the Governor’s Executive Order on Equal Opportunity.

Zach posted earlier about how the Governor had taken action against state employees, now the Attorney General has elevated the attack further with this action directed at the public universities and colleges.

This should be enough reason for recognition that it is time to enact the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, so that the bigotry of the majority in places like VA can not intrude on the rights of the minority.

What kind of roll-backs would we expect to see from a GOP Governor like Scott Walker or Mark Neumann, neither of which have been very gay friendly or supportive?

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4 thoughts on “The Right Wreaks Institutionalized Homophobia in VA

  1. “had taken action against state employees” — you act like they were all forced out of their jobs

    Nice try linking this story to Walker and Neumann. Has Walker done anything similiar as County Exec? Did Neumann make any such proposal as a member of Congress? It’s nice to pull things out of thin air, but let’s stay rooted in facts.

  2. Just Some Facts:

    #1 Wisconsin’s protections for LGBT individuals to employment and housing is a state law not an executive order…so it would take a legislative act to over turn it. The DP Benefits are also legislative not an executive order.

    #2 Milw Co Exec Walker has vetoed a study to determine if there would be any cost to the county to provide domestic partnership benefits to county workers; i.e. providing equal benefits to employees as does City of Milwaukee for the past 10 years with less than a .5% increase in cost. Which prevents the next step in the legislative process to vote on including DP Benefit for County Workers.

    #3 Neumann voted yea for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which defines marriage (and spouse) as between one man and one woman. (But in all fairness so did Barrett.) http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1996/roll316.xml

  3. Social conservatives should leave well enough alone…I mean they live in a free country where their wacko PERSONAL! views are Legally protected…however their expectation that the Federal government should also reflect those views is an Unreasonable Expectation!

  4. The federal DOMA should be repealed on two Constitutional grounds…first it attempts to deny a certain class of citizens equal rights and second the right to regulate marriage is reserved to the states.

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