Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn speaks in favor of the Virginia Values Act – Photo: Equality Virginia
A Virginia House of Delegates committee has approved a version of the Virginia Values Act, a comprehensive LGBTQ nondiscrimination bill, with bipartisan support.
The bill updates the commonwealth’s human rights laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity — as well as other characteristics in public employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations. It would also ban discrimination by private employers with six or more employees.
The House General Laws Committee approved the act, sponsored by Mark Sickles (D-Franconia) by a 16-6 vote, with all Democrats and three Republicans representing rural areas — Delegates Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach), Will Morefield (R-North Tazewell) and William Wampler III (R-Abingdon) — voting in favor of it.
Notably, Wampler had previously voted against the bill when it passed in a subcommittee by a 5-1 vote.
The committee also approved a similar nondiscrimination bill, sponsored by Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria), by an identical vote of 16-6.
That second bill explicitly adds protections for LGBTQ people in public contracting, apprenticeship programs, banking, and insurance, in addition to employment, housing, and public accommodations.
The Virginia Values Act, which has the support of Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax Station) now heads to the Committee on Appropriations.
If it passes there, it will head to the full House for consideration, where it is expected to pass with the support of most Democrats, who hold a 55-45 edge in the lower chamber.
A Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), is scheduled for a committee vote on Wednesday.
“We are encouraged by the Virginia Values Act’s progress in the General Assembly,” James Parrish, the director of the Virginia Values Coalition, said in a statement. “These nondiscrimination protections are critical to ensuring that LGBTQ people have the freedom to go about their daily lives with safety, privacy, and dignity.”
“We are witnessing a wave of positive progress as LGBTQ-friendly legislation moves through the General Assembly,” Vee Lamneck, the executive director of Equality Virginia, added. “There is widespread, bipartisan support for the Virginia Values Act. We’re confident lawmakers will quickly pass this legislation to protect LGBTQ Virginians.”
William James Wilson, of Fort Worth, Texas, has been charged with multiple hate crimes and assault offenses for allegedly attacking two same-sex couples at Detroit's MGM Grand hotel and casino earlier this month.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said the attack happened just after 1 a.m. on July 13 as the couples stood in the MGM valet area.
The couples -- Chelsi Way and her wife, Celia Haueter, and Way's brother, David Supal, with his fiancé, Zach Chearhart -- had parked at the MGM to attend a concert for Chearhart's 30th birthday. After returning to the valet, the couples were approached by two apparently intoxicated men.
The U.S. Department of Education says it will begin suspending or cutting off federal funds to five Northern Virginia school districts that refused to roll back transgender-inclusive policies by an August 15 deadline.
"The Virginia districts will have to defend their embrace of radical gender ideology over ensuring the safety of their students," the agency wrote in a statement.
The five districts -- Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County public schools -- were previously threatened with losing federal funding after the Education Department determined that their trans-affirming policies, including allowing transgender students to use restrooms matching their gender identity, infringe on the rights of non-transgender students.
A transgender asylum seeker from Mexico, identified in court filings as O.J.M., has been released after spending 43 days in immigration detention. She was arrested in early June, just after attending an asylum hearing at the Portland Immigration Court, and was held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.
O.J.M. is one of many asylum seekers arrested and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration -- a policy critics argue subverts due process. In one related case, a gay makeup artist seeking asylum was deported and imprisoned in a maximum-security facility in El Salvador after being wrongly accused of gang affiliation. He has since been released.
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