Comments on: Culhane: Virginia’s anti-gay merry-go-round

By: bike10

bike10 — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:26:04 +0000

I guess the governor and the attorney general are graduates of Pat Robertson University of intolerance.

By: Alexander Fisher-levesque

Alexander Fisher-levesque — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:24:38 +0000

Jon Stuart for Virginia gov!!!

By: Michael S Miller

Michael S Miller — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:49:09 +0000

While its a nice ‘win’ for the good guys, it still sucks that people like McDonnell are being elected to positions of power. As long as that continues, no one is safe from unreasonable bigotries and stupidity.
A good education of the people has always been the answer, but its clear we have a long way to go in the country before McDonnells brand of dinosaur can no longer cause any damage (or, preferably, dies off entirely).

By: altair

altair — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:38:46 +0000

Note to governers: Whatever you do, do not annoy the college students. They have pens. And the reason they are college students is they know how to use them. End note.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:22:52 +0000

This whole fiasco demonstrates the need for ENDA. Cuccinelli couldn’t have gotten away with his caper if ENDA had been in place, and McDonnell couldn’t have replaced the Executive order with a weaker Executive Directive.

The House was supposed to vote on ENDA this month. Well, it’s March 12 and we haven’t heard a word on it, except that Barney Frank thinks it will pass the House but he’s less sure about the Senate. Apparently Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to move on ENDA until health care is finished. Can’t the House work on two things at once? Why the endless delays?? The dems aren’t getting a penny of my money until they pass ENDA and give us our basic rights!!

By: Gerry Fisher

Gerry Fisher — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:50:05 +0000

>The previous governor, who made the law to protect the GLBT citizens. should had codify the law.

I know why you say this, but he was actually following an incremental process used successfully in a lot of other states. Reasonable people would have seen that the government and universities were doing OK, and it could have set the stage for support for codifying the law.

…again, I think that ENDA will codify it.

By: Gerry Fisher

Gerry Fisher — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:45:51 +0000

I thought he’d ride it out until ENDA forced the policy out of existence, but possibly losing the Northrop Grumman account did the trick. Money talks.

…and since money seemed to be the overriding factor, does that make him a wh*re?

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:31:05 +0000

I find it interesting that in his “directive” McDonnell declares “The Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits discrimination without a rational basis against any class of persons.
Discrimination based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation or parental status violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Therefore, discrimination against enumerated classes of persons set forth in the Virginia Human Rights Act or discrimination against any class of persons without a rational basis is prohibited.” This is a more expansive view of the equal protection clause than the Supreme Court has adopted. Were this really true, ENDA would not be necessary. Nor would McDonnell’s directive. It also makes his rescinding of the Executive Order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation more than passing strange. Of course, the whole thing is a ploy designed to cover his ass.

By: Rick Wartha

Rick Wartha — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:43:00 +0000

seems like the Governor, by issuing a executive order is taking the easy way out. The previous governor, who made the law to protect the GLBT citizens. should had codify the law. If he done that, all of this BS could have been prevented. The citizens of virginia who support GLBT right need to put more pressure on the present governor to make the law stick premanent.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:41:11 +0000

I sent a Cuccinelli an e-mail telling that under his advice, I’d be scared stiff to send a gay daughter or son to a Virginia college if I had to worry that she or he’d be distracted by state permitted and protected antigay discrimination while trying to further studies and preparing for a career at the same time. Not to speak of wasted studies and wasted tuition fees. And that I’d have to pull him or her out and send her or him up to college in a gay-friendly New England marriage equality state that would not tolerate a discriminatory scholastic environment.
And I feel obliged to thank McDonnell for stepping in to stop Cuccinelli’s advice even though it took a demonstration and his own self-serving attitudes of “we wouldn’t want the business community to be upset now by a little ruckus now would we”. So more concerned about businesses not being scared away than about discriminated-against students, he takes this “cover your rear” action. Glad he did, but seems he likes his office much more than he does the gay citizenry or gay students in Virginia. Wouldn’t want to scare away tourism, or future students to Virginia colleges, would we now.

I am not living in Virginia any time soon. But I could contemplate a move to Washington, DC to a nice quiet community just across the same street from Maryland on the Northwest DC side until Maryland gets its own marriage equality. A few such streets share the DC/MD line on the same street. And beautiful Rock Creek Park (partly in DC and partly in MD nearby).

It’s just kind of odd to look at say Western Ave and Western Ave, NW down opposite side of the same street and knowing that I can look at one side of the same street that is under marriage equality (Western Ave NW) and the other side (Western Ave) that is not… all in the same glance.