Two LGBTQ anti-discrimination bills passed through the Virginia Senate Tuesday with bipartisan support.
Senate Bill 785, sponsored by Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico County, would prevent job discrimination against LGBTQ individuals employed by the state of Virginia. Senate Bill 1211, sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, would add gender-neutral references to Virginia marriage laws and code.
The policy supported by SB 785 is in particular a key development toward making Virginia an inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation, said Equality Virginia Communications Director Kirsten Bokenkamp. Equality Virginia is the leading organization advocating for LGBTQ rights in the state.
“Currently in Virginia there is no law to protect LGBTQ employees from being fired simply for being who they are,” Bokenkamp said. “[SB 785] would protect public employees who happen to be LGBT from being fired this way.”
Ebbin said SB 1211 would change certain legal terminologies in fields of child custody, inheritance and taxes. It changes words like mother, father, husband and wife to gender neutral terms like parent and spouse.
“My legislation clarifies that all lawfully married spouses are included under Virginia law,” Ebbin said in an email.
If enacted, Ebbin’s bill will update the current Virginia state code to reflect the 2014 changes to Virginia’s legislation.
“In the wake of last fall’s decision by the Supreme Court that cleared the way for marriage equality in Virginia, it became clear there are many complexities in the state code that impact married Virginians,” Ebbin said.
Equality Virginia said they were pleased to see both SB 785 and SB 1211 pass through the Senate, but Bokenkamp said she anticipates difficulty in the House of Delegates.
“Unfortunately, the anti-LGBT leaders in the House [of Delegates] have been a roadblock in passing LGBT bills presented in the past,” Bokenkamp said. “We are facing a very anti-LGBT body.”
In order to reach the House of Delegates, the bills must first pass through a sub-committee by majority vote as they did in the Senate. Bokenkamp said she was unsure whether this would occur.
“We are not overly hopeful [either bill] will get out of sub-committee,” Bokenkamp said. “We will continue to try, and present and support these bills until they end up passing through … We don’t expect to be met with success, even though we know there is bipartisan support of these bills.”
The bills did faces some opposition in the Senate. Although there was bipartisan support, SB 785 passed out of committee by eight votes in favor and seven opposed, and through the Senate 20 to 19.
The LGBTQ anti-discrimination bills follow a host of legal advances for the LGBTQ community. In October, marriage equality for same-sex unions was legally recognized by the state of Virginia, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order mandating all state agencies to comply with the decision to strike down the ban on gay marriage. Less than a month later, McAuliffe announced that same-sex couples could now adopt children in the state.
Despite recent successes, Bokenkamp said there remains much work to be done.
“In many senses, passing legislation to ensure that people are not hired or fired for who they are is a priority,” Bokenkamp said. “The next big fight is that businesses that are open to the public are open to everyone and cannot be closed to anyone because of sexual orientation or gender identity. We don’t have a law to make sure that public accommodations of any sort, like a restaurant, a bar, or a store, are open to LGBT customers.”
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