Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
Virgil Goode and George Allen may be distant, bitter memories in the minds of most progressive Virginians but Ken Cuccinelli, the Commonwealth’s homophobic attorney general, stepped up late last week to remind us that cretins still exist in our government.
Cucinelli sent out a letter to state colleges and universities telling them to ignore discrimination against gays and treat them as lepers.
Cuccinelli claims the schools don’t have the authority to include gays in their non-discrimination policies, saying the Virginia General Assembly hasn’t passed any laws to make gays a “protected class.”
In other words, ignore common decency unless the doddering mental midgets in Richmond tell you not to.
Not surprising that such a directive should come from Cuccinelli, whose right-wing actions proclivities went largely ignored when Virginia voters, angry at President Barack Obama and Democrats, put him and his GOP pals into office.
In his letter to the colleges and universities, Cuccinelli claimed:
Several inquiries recently have been made regarding the authority of public colleges and universities to approve inclusion of “sexual orientation,” gender identity,” “gender expression,” or like classifications in the non-discrimination policies of the respective institution.
Cuccinelli is a liar. Richmond insiders tell us no such inquiries exist. The AG has planned, from the beginning, to go after gays and his missive is just an opening salvo in his campaign to drive Virginia back into the stone age of intolerance.
Virginia remains one of the few states that keeps archaic anti-gay laws on the books, including a legal ban on oral sex, even between man and wife.
Cuccinelli went so far in his homophobic tirade that even new Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell moved quickly to distance himself…sort of. The governor’s spokesman, Tucker Martin, said Saturday that no action would be taken against any college or university that tells Cuccinelli to go to hell and ignores his screed.
Said Martin:
The governor expects that no Virginia college or university, or any other state agency, will engage in discrimination of any kind. The governor will not tolerate discrimination in the Administration and his official written employment policy for the office of the governor expressly forbids discrimination on any basis other than qualification and merit.
McDonnell, however, is not as enlightened as propaganda merchant Tucker would have us believe. Earlier this year, he signed an executive order barring discrimination for sex, religion or age but did not include sexual orientation. McDonnell has yet to support, in the General Assembly, a single bill banning discrimination against gays.
Related articles
- Virginia AG, Ken Cuccinelli, Tells Public Colleges To End Protections For Gay Students, Staff (huffingtonpost.com)
- Virginia Attorney General Moves Against Gay Employees (bilerico.com)
- Va. AG: Colleges Can’t Ban Gay Discrimination (abcnews.go.com)
- Virginia AG Wants to Make It Easier to Discriminate Against Gays (trueslant.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=df5ec244-c868-4b02-a1b3-04c8a1ed4f5b)
I love this state. I’ve lived here since 1985 and consider it my home, even though I was born in GA. My wife was born and raised here, as was her mom, and much of her family. We’re Virginians through and through, and we’re sick with what’s going on here. At this point, I can only hope that they don’t do any more damage to this state than they already have done. I hope the universities and colleges across the state tell Ken where to stuff his letter. This is appalling. It also demonstrates why for the past 10 years I’ve worked to defeat this sort of religiously-driven political crap coming from the Republicans, after having been a Republican since I was a teenager. Just sickening.
Thanks Doug, for bringing this to the fore.
I guess I don’t follow your logic, why are you upset at the AG. The GA and Governor are the ones who can change the law. The AG only gave a legal opinion which is what he should do. I don’t agree with discrimination, but the proper way to change it is to pass laws to ban it. As long as Va law allows discrimination it is the AG’s job to enforce that law.
religiously-driven political crap coming :
What exactly do you mean by that statement?
Lauren; Perhaps you have forgotten that Del. Steve Newman (R – Thomas Road Baptist Church) and Del.Bob Marshall (R – Abortions Cause Retardation) relentlessly pursued (with rabid promotion by Virginia churches) an Amendment to Virginia’s Constitution legalizing discrimination against homosexuals, making them a separate class of citizen with lesser rights. I believe the ruse was “Defense of Marriage”, but it was no different than “Jim Crow”. Hopefully that helps ol’ Sandra out also.
bob,
I have to admit I don’t have a clue about Steve Newman/Bob Marshall…tried doing some internet searching didn’t come up with anything.
Would you give me some more information on this? exactly what were they trying to do?
Sandra, he is talking about the marriage amendment that the voters passed several years ago.
Bob, you only make my point. The job of the AG is to enforce the laws on the books. If you want the laws changed you need to go though the House and Senate.
I am a active republican, however that doesn’t mean I support everything elected republican officials support. Any clear thinking person finds that they don’t agree completely with any party platform. Personally I am active in the Republican party because I feel I can make more of an impact if I am involved.
Marshall-Newman Amendment I’ve been wondering what issue would motivate Democrats, Independents, young people and the broad swath of Virginians that believe that this anti-gay stuff is a crap issue…and the Cooch gave me the answer.
Well, we can complain all we want to but 57% of the voters did vote for the marriage amendment. Until the voters change their mind on this issue nothing will change.
In a STATEWIDE vote I don’t doubt that a majority of Virginians would support gay discrimination. However, just like Jim Crow, this prejudice is a relic and not supported in the Virginia that is growing. New representatives are being added in places where anti-gay yip-yap has no attraction. And it provides progressive candidates with a powerful election issue.
I believe in what the Lord says about Gay and Lesbians, and in no way should it be recognized as OK , especially marriage, remember a place called Sodom and Gomorrah, We need in this country to start following what God says. He won’t let us get away with this for long–a reminder
http://www.gotquestions.org/Sodom-and-Gomorrah.html
Let’s remember that “what the Lord says” is — like all things religious — subject to interpretation and based on writings by mortal men who were simply reporting what they saw and were told. In some ways, the authors of the books of the Bible were the journalists of their day.
If we take “what the Lord says” literally then we should punish anyone who works on the Sabbath with death. Does that make it legal or right to go into a Wal-Mart on a Sunday afternoon and gun down all the employees?
As a Christian, I have long recognized that the Bible and misinterpretation of “what the Lord days” have been used to justify too many acts of intolerance and other actions that go against the basic tenets of humanity and common sense.
Nice response to that “religiously-driven political crap.”
Bob, there are many things that threaten marriage much more than homosexuals ever will. I would suggest starting with abuse and the high rate of divorce first.