Virginia AG Wants to Make It Easier to Discriminate Against Gays

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If you’re a gay student at a public university in Virginia, I’d suggest taking a cue from your protest-happy California college student colleagues, and put on your picketing shoes.

Virginia’s conservative attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli II, sent a letter to each Virginia public college saying policies banning discrimination against gays were not legally viable. According to the Washington Post, “Colleges that have included such language in policies that govern university hiring and admissions — which include all of Virginia’s largest schools — have done so ‘without proper authority’ and should ‘take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia,’ Cuccinelli wrote.”

Cuccinelli’s move has upset students, traditionally liberal academics and faculty members who say such policies help attract top talent to their schools, but it’s also drawing ire from conservatives as well. “What he’s saying is reprehensible,” Vincent F. Callahan Jr., a former Republican member of the House of Delegates who serves on George Mason’s board of visitors, told the Post.

The move also represents what has become a one-step-forward-two-steps-back process for gay rights; since same-sex marriage went into effect a stone’s throw away in Washington D.C. this week (and Maryland moved to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere), and the military and U.S. government are working toward abolishing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning openly gay people from serving.

Cuccinelli’s action also comes on the heels of a similar move by new Gov. Bob McDonnell, who rolled back protections against gay state employees put in place by former Gov. Tim Kaine. According to Talking Points Memo, McDonnell’s camp maintains that the wording change still protects people from discrimination of any kind, but many gay and lesbian groups have expressed their displeasure with the move.