In his first press conference after a narrow victory over Republican challenger Ken Cuccinelli, Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe announced that his first executive order as governor would prohibit discrimination against LGBT state employees.
Virginia has no statewide law protecting workers from discrimination on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression. This means workers can be fired for being gay.
Former Democratic governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine both issued executive orders prohibiting anti-gay discrimination in state employment. Outgoing Gov. Bob McDonnell, however, removed protections for gay and lesbian state workers in an antidiscrimination executive order he signed Feb. 5, 2010.
The next month Cuccinelli, then serving as attorney general, sent a letter to Virginia’s public colleges and universities asking them to remove references to sexual orientation and gender identity from their nondiscrimination policies. In response to the uproar that ensued, McDonnell issued a directive to Virginia’s state employees — who at that time numbered at roughly 102,000 — prohibiting antigay discrimination in the workplace. Directives, unlike executive orders, do not carry the force of law.
What would life be like for gay Virginians had Cuccinelli won the gubernatorial contest? It’s difficult to say. But it’s hard to imagine Cuccinelli issuing an executive order banning antigay discrimination, let alone announcing his plans to do so in his first press conference as governor-elect. McAuliffe deserves credit for acting so swiftly to protect the LGBT Virginians employed by the state. That his first major announcement as the leader of Virginia has to do with gay rights makes the contrast between him and Cuccinelli very stark indeed.
McAuliffe’s proposed executive order accords with his approach to gay rights throughout the race. At numerous points, such as at the Virginia Bar Association convention debate in July, McAuliffe defended gay rights on the grounds that a more hospitable environment for LGBT people would be good for business. A more open and welcoming commonwealth would better attract out-of-state and foreign commercial ventures, McAuliffe argued.
This argument is not the best defense of gay rights, but it is one that business-oriented conservatives can get behind. A business-centered defense of employment protections, for example, does not require a thoroughgoing acceptance of homosexuality or same-sex marriage — all it asks for is that employees be evaluated by the work they do rather than the people they love.
McAuliffe’s plans might be rendered redundant by the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which passed in the U.S. Senate Thursday. The act prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Regardless of what happens on the federal level, McAuliffe’s move to immediately announce an LGBT-friendly executive order makes good on the progressive commitments he put forth during his campaign.
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