[1]Taking their cue from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s inauguration speech Saturday [2], state Democrats unveiled a portion of their new economic agenda for Virginia: a series of bills to overturn the Marshall-Newman (marriage) amendment and codify McAuliffe’s Executive Order Number One [3].
“An open and welcoming state is critical in a 21st Century economy,” said McAuliffe Saturday. And he immediately acted on his words by signing Executive Order One, which “specifically prohibits discrimination [in state government] on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, political affiliation, or against otherwise qualified persons with disabilities.”
All of Virginia’s state-run colleges and universities will fall under this Executive Order.
Calling themselves the “Equality Caucus”, Democratic Senators Donald McEachin and Adam Ebbin are leading the efforts in the Senate, which still remains deadlocked whose majority remains undetermined until the results of the special elections in 6th District and the 33rd District are finalized. The House of Delegates carries a 2-1 GOP advantage and is not likely to pass McEachin or Ebbin’s bills.
The senators claim Virginia is at an economic disadvantage to neighboring states because Virginia law is more restrictive towards homosexuality.
“Fewer Americans are working today than at any point since the Carter administration; but instead of focusing on jobs and the economy, liberals in Virginia have introduced nearly 20 bills dealing with sex and abortion,” responded The Family Foundation’s Victoria Cobb to the new legislation.
“The left’s attacks on marriage, religious liberty and parental rights won’t be distracting enough for Virginians to notice they don’t have jobs, but they could undermine Governor McAuliffe’s claims that he wants to work across party lines and avoid divisive issues.”
When asked about former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s consistent legal opinion [4] about the state not being able to include homosexuals as a protected class due to the legislature not passing a bill to make them so, McEachin called Cuccinelli “a zealot to the end.”
(For more on Cuccinelli and defining gays as a protected class, read my post [5] from March 2010)