VA Senate Passes Anti-Discrimination Bill

VA Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw (D-Alexandria) / Photo by Steve Helber, AP

Today's Washington Post says that the Virginia Senate passed a bill Monday that would make it illegal to discriminate in the state workforce, including on the basis of sexual orientation, marking the first time such legislation has passed either chamber of the Virginia General Assembly.

The bill, which passed on a 23-to-17 largely party line vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate, will almost certainly die in the Republican-led House of Delegates.

But advocates hailed its passage as an important step in an incremental process toward passage. Opponents said the measure would provide unnecessary legal protections that could provoke lawsuits in a workforce that does not discriminate.

Virginia's last two Democratic governors signed executive orders that protected workers from discrimination, including on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), who took office last month, has pledged not to allow discrimination for any reason in state government. But he maintained that his predecessors had overstepped their executive authority by including sexual orientation protections in the orders and has not renewed them. He said the issue would be properly decided by the General Assembly.

Senators who backed the measure said they believed its passage would bring Virginia's employment practices in line with the private sector and public opinion. They likened the vote to those taken during the civil rights era and predicted that lawmakers who voted against it would come to regret their action in coming years.

Federal law prohibits discrimination on grounds that include race, religion and sex but not sexual orientation. Thirty other states have extended protections to gay employees.

Gubernatorial Candidates in Rhode Island Support Same-Sex Marriage

According to Rhode Island's Mercury News, three candidates in Rhode Island's upcoming governor's race support same-sex marriage.

Attorney General Patrick Lynch and General Treasurer Frank Caprio, the Democrats, and former Senator Lincoln Chafee, running as an Independent, have been invited to make their promise public at a Statehouse rally scheduled for March 3, said Kathy Kushnir, executive director of Marriage Equality Rhode Island.

Kushnir said Republican candidate John Robitaille has not returned her calls, although Robitaille said he was never contacted by Kushnir's group. He opposes gay marriage but would consider supporting a domestic parntership system for gay couples.

Although the three candidates previously have said they support gay marriage, the pledges come as gay rights activists hope to capitalize on the departure of Republican Gov. Don Carcieri, a staunch social conservative who opposes such unions. State law requires him to leave office after finishing his second term early next year.

"I think that it's really important that the people of Rhode Island understand that this can be a reality here sooner rather than later," Kushnir said. "One of the major obstacles we face right now is a veto from the governor's office, and that would be gone."

Rhode Island is the only New England state besides Maine that does not recognize same-sex marriage. The movement to legalize it has hit a plateau. Legislation that would permit same-sex marriage has died in the Democratic-dominated General Assembly every year without getting a vote since it was first introduced in 1997.

It seems unlikely the state Supreme Court will legalize same-sex marriage as the courts did in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In 2007, Rhode Island's top court refused to let a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts get divorced in their home state of Rhode Island because the court said lawmakers have never defined marriage as anything except a union between a man and a woman.

Carcieri has not been the only political obstacle to gay marriage. Many socially conservative Democrats also oppose it, including Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed and House Speaker William Murphy, who intends to step down next year.

House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, a gay man who backs same-sex marriage, is seeking to replace Murphy.

VA Delegate Tries Again for Repeal of Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Delegate David Englin, D-Alexandria

According to the Gainesville (VA) Times, Delegate David Englin, D-Alexandria, wants Virginia to repeal its constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

He says the amendment, which voters approved four years ago, is unfair to gay and lesbian couples. So he’s trying for the third time to repeal it.

“If we are to take our founding values seriously, where we say that every human being deserves equal treatment under the law, then we cannot enshrine in the Constitution a policy that boils down to nothing but bigotry,” Englin said.

In the 2006 general election, 57 percent of voters supported amending the Virginia Constitution to say:

•Marriage is a union between a man and a woman.
•Virginia will not recognize “a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage.”
•Nor will the state recognize “another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.”

To repeal that amendment, Englin is sponsoring House Joint Resolution 55. It is similar to proposals he carried in 2007 and 2009. They did not get much attention, but Englin says he won’t give up.

HJ 55, which is being co-sponsored by Delegate L. Kaye Kory, D-Falls Church, has been referred to the House Privileges and Elections Committee. The panel has not voted on the measure.

Equality Virginia, an advocacy organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians, hopes the resolution will pass. However, the group knows that it may be a long-term struggle to persuade Virginia to recognize relationships other than a marriage between a man and a woman.
“To deny not only all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples that, but all straight couple who, for whatever, don’t have the right to marry as well, is a massive injustice that we won’t tolerate in Virginia,” said Jon Blair, chief executive officer of Equality Virginia.

Opposing the resolution is the Family Foundation of Virginia, whose mission is to protect “traditional values” and to “establish a Commonwealth of families who are guided by faith and protected by a principled government.”

Chris Frend, vice president of the Family Foundation, predicted that Englin’s resolution will be defeated as it was in previous years.

“We’re only three years removed from nearly 60 percent of Virginians voting to support the amendment, and we’re two months removed from an election where three of the elected (statewide officials) were advocates for the amendment,” Frend said. “I think the overwhelming majority of Virginians have no interest in revisiting this issue.”

He was referring to the election last November of Bob McDonnell as governor and Ken Cuccinelli as attorney general and the re-election of Bill Bolling as lieutenant governor.

Five states allow same-sex marriages – New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont. Washington, D.C., also has approved a law supporting same-sex marriage.

To repeal the 2006 constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, Englin’s resolution first must be passed by a majority of the House and Senate. Then, after a legislative election, it must be approved again by the General Assembly. Finally, the proposal would go to voters in a statewide election.

Englin, who served a dozen years in the Air Force and now is vice president of a media relations firm, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2005. He represents House District 45, which includes parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties and part of the city of Alexandria.

To read this article in full, click here.

New Costa Rican President Opposes Same-Sex Marriage

The Advocate is reporting that Laura Chinchilla, elected the first woman president of Costa Rica on Sunday, opposes same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

Chinchilla won the election in a landslide after promising to focus on free market policies in Central America’s most stable nation, according to the Associated Press. A member of the ruling National Liberation Party, she is a protégé of the current president, Oscar Arias, a Nobel Prize laureate.

“Chinchilla, the mother of a teenage son, is a social conservative who opposes abortion and gay marriage,” reports the AP. “She appealed both to Costa Ricans seeking a fresh face and those reluctant to risk the unknown.”

The historic election of Chinchilla follows Nicaragua, Panama, Chile, and Argentina, the other Latin American countries that have elected a woman as president.

MD House Committee Kills Proposed Marriage Ban

Rep. Emmett C. Burns, Jr.

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that embers of a Maryland House committee on Wednesday shot down a bill that would prohibit Maryland from recognizing same-sex marriages validated by other states or countries.

The House of Delegates Judiciary Committee voted against the proposal from Baltimore County Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr. (pictured)

The same committee has rejected similar measures introduced in other years. Its vote prevents the bill from going to the House floor for debate.

Burns introduced the bill in January, as the state attorney general, Doug Gansler, was reportedly preparing to issue an opinion on out-of-state marriage recognition.

Family Research Council's VP Calls for Outlaw of "Gay Behavior"

Today's guest post comes to us from David Fishback, the advocacy chair of the Metro DC PFLAG chapter in response to the Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg's appearance on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

"At the very end of a discussion of the Don't Ask/Don't Tell hearing Mr. Sprigg was asked by Mr. Mathews if "gay behavior" should be outlawed. Mr. Sprigg responded that "I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior." Then Mr. Mathews, presumably to make certain that Mr. Sprigg understood what he had just said, asked, "So we should outlaw gay behavior?" Mr. Sprigg replied, "Yes."

Mr. Sprigg has now shown himself to be an enemy of committed gay couples' rights to exist free from imprisonment. In so doing, he grossly insulted every gay couple and every gay person in America -- and every family member and friend of a gay person. In other words, he said publicly, and unambiguously, that my son and his partner should be subjected to criminal sanctions for loving each other.

This is not a "gotcha" situation. Mr. Mathews gave Mr. Sprigg the opportunity to back-off from his statement, in case he had somehow "misspoken."

Could the "Ex-Gay" Movement be Moving to Uganda?

The disastrous effects of “ex-gay” or “conversion” therapy are well known in the LGBT community. Research has shown that the therapy does not work in converting a gay person into a straight person and, moreover, is psychologically harmful to those who are put through it. If you have been to our national convention in 2007 or our 2009 annual meeting, you got to hear the heartbreaking, first-hand account from our staff who infiltrated a Love Won Out convention.

Until recently conversion therapy was uniquely American. Now we are getting word that therapists in Britain have been inspired by these American “conversions” and are introducing this harmful practice to the United Kingdom. The Advocate is reporting that “Professor Michael King of University College London is one of six UK psychiatrists and psychotherapists who have sought to reduce or change a patient’s sexual orientation. And with the help of the American conversion therapy movement, practitioners in the UK, along with a clutch of international “conversion” organizations, are becoming unified and coordinated. They plan to gain credibility, university backing, and government funding. In some cases, the NHS (National Health Service) is even paying for the treatment.”

British journalist Patrick Strudwick, who is gay, went undercover for several months with conversion therapists. According to Strudwick, “I asked [one of the therapists] how she views homosexuality – as a mental illness, an addiction, or an anti-religious phenomenon? ‘It’s all of that,’ she replies. And then we pray. ‘Oh Father, we give you permission to work in Matthew’s (Patrick’s undercover name) life to bring complete light and healing into every part of his being.’ After asking God to heal me, she opens her eyes. ‘I know the boundaries to keep within.’”

[To read the entirety of Patrick’s journey in “conversion” therapy, click here.]

This leaves us wondering: if this practice is being admired by those in London, will conversion therapy spread elsewhere? One place where we are keeping an eye out is Uganda, a country that has recently proposed a violent and inhumane bill in regards to the treatment of its LGBT citizens. According to the bill:

• Gays and lesbians convicted of having gay sex would be sentenced, at a minimum, to life in prison
• People who tested positive for HIV may be executed
• Gays and lesbians who have sex with a minor or who engage in gay sex more than once may receive the death penalty
• Organizations that work in HIV/AIDS prevention would not be banned for “promoting homosexuality”
• Anyone who knows of homosexual activity taking place but doesn’t report it would risk up to three years in prison

Homosexuality in Uganda is already illegal. This bill is overkill. But it could also become the next breeding ground for the “ex-gay” movement. Is it illogical to think that “conversion” therapists won’t seize upon this opportunity of a entire nation in fear to impart their agenda and “expertise” at ridding the body of same-sex attraction? We certainly hope not.