State Houses Thread

[fraurosena]

She said this at an event in GOP headquarters in Arizona. 

 

[Audrey2]

That was absolutely disgusting. She obviously doesn't know her history, as much of Arizona was taken from Mexico after the war with Mexico (Remember the Alamo), and the rest was added as a result of the Gadsden Purchase. Some of the "scary brown families" have roots in Arizona that were established well before this woman's family moved in.

I get the feeling that when she talks about assimilation, she thinks that they should also look like the Caucasian who live there as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Sylvester the cat who was always saying this is despicable? It's definitely time to quote him.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Audrey2 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Sylvester the cat who was always saying this is despicable? It's definitely time to quote him.

It was Daffy Duck.

 

[fraurosena]

Sweet Rufus.

 

[fraurosena]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

What a prince /sarcasm: "A GOP state lawmaker said the U.S. should ‘get rid of’ colleges for being ‘liberal breeding grounds’"

Spoiler

A Republican Tennessee state senator says now that his idea to “cut off” funding to higher education was hyperbole, and not to be taken seriously. Kerry Roberts previously said he thought universities should be shut down for being a “liberal breeding ground.”

Roberts made the assertion on his eponymous radio show on Sept. 2, as he recounted his frustration with a woman who testified against a restrictive abortion bill, SB 1236, before the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee on Aug. 13. The bill, which seeks to ban abortion as soon as a woman knows she’s pregnant, is probably unconstitutional. But Roberts told CBS News before the hearing that that was the point.

Roberts hopes the measure’s passage will trigger a legal battle that will carry it to the Supreme Court to challenge precedents such as Roe v. Wade, a 1973 high court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. His legislative assistant subsequently confirmed his thinking to The Washington Post.

Although on his radio show he did not name the woman who testified, he appeared to refer to Cherisse Scott of the organization SisterReach, which advocates “for the reproductive autonomy of women and teens of color, poor and rural women, LGBTQ+, and gender nonconforming people and their families,” according to the organization’s website.

Scott, the only black woman to testify that day, got only partway through her prepared testimony before committee chairman Mike Bell (R) silenced her with his gavel and cut off her microphone. She had argued that restricting abortion rights would have implications far beyond reproductive issues, and would affect women and communities of color in terms of their health, economic standing and social mobility.

In his radio show, Roberts used Scott’s testimony as evidence of “the garbage being taught to our children” in institutions of higher learning.

“We got some woman in there who just goes off,” Roberts told his listeners. “And it’s all about … pick every, every liberal bit of indoctrination that you can get in a university setting today. Far left, I mean you’ve got all of these ‘intersectionalities’ and ‘white supremacy’ and ‘oppressive this’ and every buzzword in the liberal lexicon is being thrown at thrown at us by some woman who’s not even talking about the legal argument; she’s just going off on something.”

Roberts continued, “If there’s one thing that we can to do to save America today, it is to get rid of our institutions of higher education right now, and cut the liberal breeding ground off,” he shouted, before adding, “Good grief!”

“The stupid stuff that our kids are being taught is absolutely ridiculous, and this is a woman who is a product of higher education; she’s learned all of this stuff that flies in the face of what we stand for as a country,” he continued.

“And here we are as legislators paying for this garbage to be taught to our children. And we’re not doing anything about it, in all these red states across America, we let it exist, and it’s absolutely unbelievable,” he said, before blaming abortion on higher education. “This is the price we pay, the murder of over half a million innocent lives every year with people sitting there justifying it to their last breath,” he said.

On Monday, a video circulated by the website the Tennessee Holler and an Associated Press report on his remarks about cutting off funding for higher education stirred up a social media storm.

In response, Roberts stated on social media that his remarks had been “hyperbole” and were “not to be taken literally,” and that his listeners would “understand the humor and hyperbole of it."

In a statement to The Post on Tuesday, Roberts reiterated this point but added, “I stand behind my general critique of liberal arts education in America one hundred percent.”

The statement continued: “Many higher education institutions have unquestionably become liberal breeding grounds where radical values and hatred for America are fomented. It’s time for lawmakers to question the efficacy of higher education in America, meaningless majors, liberal bias, and intolerance of traditional values and conservative points of view.”

The Associated Press reports that Roberts voted for a $38.5 billion budget earlier this year that included funding for colleges and universities. His official state Senate page says he received a bachelor’s degree from Lipscomb University, a Christian liberal arts college.

In a video live stream of the radio show, Roberts was not laughing as he delivered his comments but, rather, grew increasingly agitated.

Scott’s Aug. 13 testimony ended with her being escorted out of the state Senate by the sergeant at arms, after Bell ordered a recess. Video shows her continuing to speak as state senators walk away from the dais, while some women in the audience stand and applaud. Security officials flank Scott, who remains seated.

“They wisely kept their hands off her, because I guarantee you there would have been a lawsuit, or there would have been some international incident, because she was, after all, a woman of color, as if that mattered to any of us!” Roberts told his listeners last week.

“Despite the fact that she’s chastising all of these white people sitting in front of her, let me tell you something, nobody gave me the job. I got elected by the people l represent,” he continued. “And if they want to elect someone with a different color of skin, then more power to them, but I’m the one that ran for office, and there was not a single person of color in my race. Don’t blame me!”

In an essay for Vice, Scott said that the legislators had asked that speakers submit an outline of their statement in advance, and that they would therefore know what she would say. She was cut off anyway.

“I timed my statement when I wrote it to make sure it came in around 10 minutes — I knew better, she wrote. “And I knew there was a possibility they wouldn’t let me finish. By the time I got to the part of my statement about white supremacist ideology in Tennessee, they stopped me.

“Certain people still don’t give a damn about my rights because even 400 years later, they don’t see me as a human being,” she wrote of her decision to speak about other social justice issues during her testimony. “Abortion is a big piece of this struggle, but it’s not the whole piece. We need to understand how these things are connected.”

Heather Shumaker, a senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, who also testified against SB 1236 that day, told The Post in August that “people of color, people of low-income jobs, people who live in rural areas, people who already have kids … are the people who are going to be hit the hardest by this kind of bill.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"To recognize Black History Month, GOP lawmaker proposes a list of mostly white people"

Spoiler

In Wisconsin this February, one lawmaker wants to mark Black History Month by celebrating 10 Americans — including a Civil War colonel, a newspaper editor and a church deacon.

All are heralded for their bravery; but most on the list are white.

The resolution, circulated this month, identifies a group of people integral to the state’s Underground Railroad system, both slaves who traveled it and abolitionists who sheltered them. The author, state Rep. Scott Allen (R), says it’s a sincere effort to salute important historical figures.

But several black legislators have called the effort disingenuous and said it undermines the purpose of Black History Month: to highlight the accomplishments of African Americans so often overlooked in classrooms and history books.

It’s the third year in a row that Wisconsin’s commemoration of Black History Month has devolved into a largely partisan struggle over issues of cultural appropriation, identity politics, privilege and power — a small-scale tableau of some of the nation’s deepest divides.

“Why should you be leading what we do on Black History Month?” state Sen. Lena Taylor (D) said in an interview, referring to Allen, who is white. “The fact that this even needs to be discussed is a reflection of where we are as a society. I wake up every day as a black woman, I’m not exactly sure what it is that Scott Allen believes he knows better than me."

Allen said he knows the optics are bad: “Here I am, this white guy, proposing this resolution that honors some white people during Black History Month, and those are easy headlines to put out there and run with,” he said in an interview. But his intent, Allen said, was to craft a resolution that would also appeal to his white Republican colleagues who in the past have accused the Legislative Black Caucus of politicizing the list of honorees.

“I’d rather we work together to pass a resolution the Republican caucus can be excited about,” Allen said. “If we can do that one simple thing, then we can start attacking the tougher issues.”

The list includes six white abolitionists, four black slaves and unnamed members of the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohican Indians, and it’s meant to “demonstrate our unity by highlighting an aspect of American history that has made and continues to make us stronger together,” Allen wrote in a memo to fellow lawmakers asking for co-sponsors.

But Taylor, who is also running for mayor of Milwaukee, said the resolution is patronizing, and in an email to Allen, she compared him to a slave owner trying to control how black Wisconsinites memorialize their history.

“Thank you Massa Allen for pickin’ whose we should honuh suh,” Taylor wrote. “We sho ain’t capable of thinkin’ fo ourselves, suh.”

If Allen were serious about helping black residents, she said, he would back her legislative efforts to address racial disparity. Allen, in response, has said he disagrees with Taylor’s solutions, but agrees that some of the state’s biggest problems are the achievement gap between black and white students and the deep residential segregation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city.

The observance of Black History Month can be traced back to the 1920s, when the historian and scholar Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week to celebrate the February birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, the week became a month, and President Gerald R. Ford encouraged the country to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Taylor said the idea of deviating from Woodson’s intention — by honoring several people who are not black — is offensive and ignores the fact that black history has been marginalized. It’s like responding to a chant of “Black lives matter” by saying “All lives matter,” she said.

“Black History Month, for me, is about making sure we honor the people who have not been recognized,” Taylor said. “It’s about black people being honored in a state where that has not happened."

“The fact that Representative Allen wants to co-opt Black History Month and redefine what it is and who you recognize saddens me,” she added.

Allen, whose wife is black and whose children are biracial, said he doesn’t want to diminish the history of African Americans but would like to “get people of all races excited about celebrating Black History Month.”

“We so want to cling to labels in this country, we want to cling to identity politics, but we shouldn’t be looking at this strictly because of race,” Allen said, echoing criticisms shared by Republicans nationally, who themselves are often driven by white identity politics.

Taylor and other black Democratic lawmakers said they’d be more inclined to trust Allen if his party didn’t have a recent history of trying to disrupt the ceremonial resolution.

In February, Republican lawmakers blocked the black caucus’s Black History Month resolution until Democrats agreed to remove the name of Milwaukee-born ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick from the list of honorees. GOP leaders deemed Kaepernick, who protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, too controversial to include.

The quarterback’s removal was “a textbook example of white privilege” and a “slap in the face,” the resolution’s author, Rep. David Crowley (D), told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

In 2018, Allen and Taylor were also at the center of a debate over a Black History Month resolution, as Allen complained that several worthy figures were left off that year’s list — including David Clarke, the controversial former sheriff of Milwaukee County who has compared the Black Lives Matter protest movement to the Ku Klux Klan.

Allen instead proposed an amendment that replaced the “exclusive list of names” so “ALL African-Americans who have contributed to Wisconsin are included and recognized,” the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Legislators later decided to pass two resolutions that year.

This year, the divide again appears intractable — the rare point that both sides seem to agree on.

“I think it’s a reflection,” Taylor said, “of how far we have not come.”

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

I would like to thank my state house for the legalization of marijuana that began today.

Thank you.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Yes! "Guns banned in Virginia Capitol as Democratic majority takes first action on firearms"

Spoiler

RICHMOND — Newly empowered Virginia Democrats on Friday banned guns from the State Capitol, muscling through a sharp policy shift in a place where lawmakers often pack heat on the floor.

The policy, adopted over vehement Republican objections, is a first strike for gun control by the House and Senate, both under Democratic control for the first time in decades.

The legislature is expected to pass far-reaching gun restrictions before the 60-day session that began Wednesday wraps up.

“Our objective here is keeping everyone safe,” House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) told reporters. “It’s being done in countless states throughout the United States.”

The policy, which was set to take effect at midnight Friday, pointedly applies not just to visitors, who until now have been allowed to bring weapons into the building if they have a concealed-carry permit. The ban also applies to senators and delegates — even those who are law enforcement officers.

But as a practical matter, Capitol Police Col. Steve Pike said, the policy will not be enforced with lawmakers. Requiring them to pass through metal detectors would probably slow them down as they travel between the Capitol and the adjacent Pocahontas Building, which the ban also covers. In addition, he said, legislators are immune from prosecution during the session, under a law intended to ensure their performance of the people’s business is not impeded.

Gov. Ralph Northam (D) applauded Friday’s policy change, which mirrors gun bans already in place in executive-branch buildings. His office said he, along with state and local law enforcement, is reviewing options for regulating weapons in outdoor areas of Capitol Square, “in light of incoming intelligence” — a reference to plans for an enormous gun rights rally planned for Jan. 20.

Organizers say that event could draw tens of thousands of heavily armed protesters, including militias and members of extremist groups from across the country.

“The other side is very, very, very ugly right now, and the threats are real,” said Lori Haas of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “I don’t begrudge them being careful.”

One lawmaker hinted Friday that she will not quit carrying in the Capitol, regardless of the policy change.

“I’m going to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Virginia Constitution, so help me God,” said Sen. Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield), who drew attention last year by wearing a .38 special on her hip. This year, she has been carrying a weapon in her American-flag-patterned purse.

If Capitol police officers are made aware that a lawmaker is violating the policy, Pike said, “I will go to the leadership of both bodies and explain to them what is going on.”

Asked what he would do if leaders responded by instructing him to escort a lawmaker out, Pike hesitated. “I’m going to have to think on that,” he said.

The gun ban was imposed by the Joint Rules Committee, a panel of House and Senate members whose decisions on Capitol policy are not subject to review by the full legislature. Democrats outnumber Republicans on the panel 11 to 5, and the vote fell along party lines.

Guns are expected to be the marquee issue this session, after Democrats — many running on gun-control platforms — wrested control of the House and Senate from Republicans in November. The issue took on greater prominence after a gunman killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building in May and Republicans refused to take any action on gun control at a special session that Northam called in the aftermath.

Northam is advocating eight bills, including measures to ban the sale of assault-style weapons; require background checks on all firearms sales and transfers; cap handgun purchases at one per month; and create a “red flag” law to temporarily remove guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Republicans complained bitterly that they had gotten word of the Rules Committee meeting only the night before.

“This is something that has been recommended by our Capitol Police,” House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria) responded. “There are times when we sort of have to trust what our law enforcement officers are telling us in concern for our safety and the safety of individuals that are coming into this building.”

Filler-Corn invoked the same reasoning: “Again, this is being recommended by Colonel Pike and the professionals and that’s why we’re moving in this direction.”

Pike later made clear that he had not recommended the policy itself, just the mechanics of implementing it. “They approached me and said [if] they wanted to put a prohibition in place, how would that be handled?” Pike said.

Republicans then accused Democrats of trying to pin the policy change on Capitol Police, something House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) called “disgusting” and “downright dirty.”

Former House speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights), who has kept a low profile since losing his leadership position, confronted the new speaker on the issue directly.

“Let’s be honest with each other,” he said to Filler-Corn. “That was a deliberate misrepresentation. There’s just no way around that.”

Filler-Corn did not directly respond but later told reporters that the allegation was “absolutely ridiculous. They’re trying to change the narrative.”

The Rs are already butt-hurt. Too bad. They've had it their way for decades.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

Isn't inciting - and facilitating! - violence a crime?

Edited January 14, 2020 by fraurosena

[GreyhoundFan]

Shaking my head: "Missouri bill: New parent board could toss any public library book it deems sexually inappropriate — and librarians could be jailed"

Spoiler

Put this in the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up category.

A conservative Republican legislator in Missouri has introduced legislation that would create “parental library review boards” with the power to decide whether books in public libraries are too sexually explicit for young people. The five-member panels — elected by community members — would hold hearings to gather suggestions from the public on what books are inappropriate for minors.

And that’s not all: Library personnel could be fined up to $500 or jailed for up to a year if they “willfully” violate any provision of the legislation, should it become law, and libraries could lose all of their funding.

It’s that time of year again when more than half of the country’s state legislatures convene and a mountain of legislation is introduced by lawmakers. Much of it is unremarkable, but there are, every year, some bills that raise eyebrows — such as this one.

It’s the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, or House Bill 2044, which was introduced Jan. 8 into the Missouri House of Representatives by Rep. Ben Baker (R). He is a minister, missionary and former dean of students at Ozark Bible Institute and College, and, his biography says, also owns a small construction business that specializes in artisanal trim work.

Baker’s office did not immediately respond to a query about why he thinks such a law is necessary and why he believes jail is an appropriate penalty for library personnel who violate it.

But PEN America, a nonprofit that works to defend free expression through the advancement of literature and human rights, had plenty to say.

“This is a shockingly transparent attempt to legalize book banning in the state of Missouri,” James Tager, deputy director of free expression research and policy at PEN America, said in a statement. “This act is clearly aimed at empowering small groups of parents to appoint themselves as censors over their state’s public libraries. Books wrestling with sexual themes, books uplifting LGBTQIA+ characters, books addressing issues such as sexual assault — all of these books are potentially on the chopping block if this bill is passed.”

According to the proposed legislation, the parental review advisory board would be allowed to order any material “deemed to be age-inappropriate sexual material to be removed from public access by minors at the public library.” And any such order could not be reviewed by “the governing body of the public library, the state, or any political subdivision thereof.”

Tager also said: “Every reader and writer in the country should be horrified, absolutely horrified, at this bill. The fact that a librarian could actually be imprisoned under this act for following his or her conscience and refusing to block minors from access to a book, that tells you all you need to know about the suitability of this act within a democratic society.”

Here’s the bill:

LINK

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[NachosFlandersStyle]

On 1/16/2020 at 7:24 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

Shaking my head: "Missouri bill: New parent board could toss any public library book it deems sexually inappropriate — and librarians could be jailed"

  Reveal hidden contents

Put this in the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up category.

A conservative Republican legislator in Missouri has introduced legislation that would create “parental library review boards” with the power to decide whether books in public libraries are too sexually explicit for young people. The five-member panels — elected by community members — would hold hearings to gather suggestions from the public on what books are inappropriate for minors.

And that’s not all: Library personnel could be fined up to $500 or jailed for up to a year if they “willfully” violate any provision of the legislation, should it become law, and libraries could lose all of their funding.

It’s that time of year again when more than half of the country’s state legislatures convene and a mountain of legislation is introduced by lawmakers. Much of it is unremarkable, but there are, every year, some bills that raise eyebrows — such as this one.

It’s the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, or House Bill 2044, which was introduced Jan. 8 into the Missouri House of Representatives by Rep. Ben Baker (R). He is a minister, missionary and former dean of students at Ozark Bible Institute and College, and, his biography says, also owns a small construction business that specializes in artisanal trim work.

Baker’s office did not immediately respond to a query about why he thinks such a law is necessary and why he believes jail is an appropriate penalty for library personnel who violate it.

But PEN America, a nonprofit that works to defend free expression through the advancement of literature and human rights, had plenty to say.

“This is a shockingly transparent attempt to legalize book banning in the state of Missouri,” James Tager, deputy director of free expression research and policy at PEN America, said in a statement. “This act is clearly aimed at empowering small groups of parents to appoint themselves as censors over their state’s public libraries. Books wrestling with sexual themes, books uplifting LGBTQIA+ characters, books addressing issues such as sexual assault — all of these books are potentially on the chopping block if this bill is passed.”

According to the proposed legislation, the parental review advisory board would be allowed to order any material “deemed to be age-inappropriate sexual material to be removed from public access by minors at the public library.” And any such order could not be reviewed by “the governing body of the public library, the state, or any political subdivision thereof.”

Tager also said: “Every reader and writer in the country should be horrified, absolutely horrified, at this bill. The fact that a librarian could actually be imprisoned under this act for following his or her conscience and refusing to block minors from access to a book, that tells you all you need to know about the suitability of this act within a democratic society.”

Here’s the bill:

LINK

 

 

The good news is that I'm pretty sure this bill is going nowhere. But while we're on the topic, I highly recommend the student handbook from Ozark Bible Institute. One of the wildest fundie U handbooks I've  ever seen. Rep. Baker was dean of students, meaning that before he was making laws for the general public, he spent his days making sure that students weren't going to bowling alleys or spending more than 8 hours per week in the presence of someone of the opposite sex.

http://www.obicollege.com/generalinfopage/studenthandbook122014.pdf

[GreyhoundFan]

The Rs from rural Virginia have held the bulk of the power for decades. Now they're all butthurt because they can't run roughshod over the rest of the state anymore: "This is what a blue state looks like: Rapid change roils Virginia Republicans"

Spoiler

RICHMOND — One Republican delegate warns that Virginia is splitting in two. Another would support returning liberal Arlington and Alexandria to the District of Columbia. Lawmakers in West Virginia have offered to annex rural Frederick County, outside Winchester, to liberate it from its rapidly urbanizing home.

The change that Democrats promised in last fall’s election campaigns is hitting Richmond with full force, casting new light on political and cultural divisions that have simmered for years. As leaders quickly advance gun control, women’s rights and LGBTQ protections, many Republicans charge that they’re trampling on the interests of a new minority: rural conservatives who long held sway in the Capitol.

“We don’t need one part of Virginia pitted against another just because of a political agenda,” House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) said.

Last week’s massive gun rights rally was the rawest reaction yet to the demographic shifts turning Virginia from red to blue. While the state’s electorate has been tilting Democratic for more than a decade, this year’s General Assembly session shows what consolidated power looks like, with blue majorities in the legislature joining forces with Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam.

The abrupt change is playing out in ways large and small. Democrats grabbed national attention for approving the Equal Rights Amendment, while also changing the pronouns in official House rules from “he/him” to “she/her.” The weekly “Speaker’s Bible study” has become an “interfaith devotional” that kicked off with a rabbi. The word “Militia” is gone from the name of the House Public Safety Committee.

Democrats say the changes are meant to be more inclusive. “We’re telling people, ‘Yes, you belong here, you have someone you can relate to here,’ ” said Del. Danica A. Roem (D-Prince William), Virginia’s first openly transgender state lawmaker.

Women and minorities have vaulted into historic positions of power. Beyond the first female Speaker and House majority leader, African Americans chair seven of the 14 standing House committees, including the powerful Appropriations Committee that controls state purse strings.

Regionally, the shift is equally striking. In both the House and Senate, Democrats from the D.C. suburbs control the majority of committee chairmanships; under Republicans, the powerful jobs were distributed to lawmakers from all over the state, with a tilt toward rural areas.

The upshot is that white men from red parts of Virginia hold less power this year than any time since Reconstruction.

In a sense, the change addresses old imbalances — and not just racial ones. Northern Virginia has never had positions of influence equal to its proportion of the state’s population and wealth, particularly in the House of Delegates. And Republicans over the past quarter-century have used their majorities to pass measures that Democrats found extreme, such as requiring ultrasounds before abortions or undoing any hint of restrictions on guns.

Northam’s predecessor, Terry McAuliffe (D), vetoed more bills than any governor in state history in what he called a “brick wall” against the excesses of a Republican-controlled legislature.

The Senate, which has flipped control more often than the House, has made the transition fairly smoothly — though Republicans complained that no members from the mountainous southwest are part of the powerful Finance Committee.

In the House, which was under GOP control for 24 years, the shift has been painful. Former House speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) opted not to take over as minority leader and sits quietly during floor sessions, grimacing and whispering with colleagues.

Del. Robert D. Orrock Sr. (R-Caroline), the GOP’s master of parliamentary rules, routinely bounces to his feet to challenge Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) on what he says are procedural errors. Gilbert, the minority leader, lectured the new leadership in an extraordinary speech Jan. 17.

“I realize this is a jubilant time for Democrats,” Gilbert said, while warning of “growing concern about how we are functioning as an institution.” The pace of taking up bills was too slow, he said, pointing out that the session would be 14 days old before the first measures were likely to pass out of the House.

Committees have canceled meetings, he noted, and legislative aides complained of low morale. The session “seems slow, it seems awkward and it doesn’t seem like it is getting any better,” he said.

Filler-Corn responded with a frosty promise that work will be done on time. And Del. Luke E. Torian (D-Prince William), the first African American to chair the Appropriations Committee, angrily instructed Gilbert not to “single us out as though we are lazy.”

Privately, many Democrats said they bristled at the optics of Gilbert, a white man, seeming to question the competence of female and black leaders.

The phenomenon repeated Monday when Gilbert led an attack on a bill loosening abortion restrictions as a large crowd of women waited in the House gallery to witness final passage of the ERA. Lobbing repeated questions at House Majority Leader Charniele L. Herring (D-Alexandria), the bill’s sponsor, Gilbert at one point suggested she had missed something because she was consulting a colleague.

“I am standing here on my own,” Herring shot back. Filler-Corn soon cut off debate. The abortion rights bill advanced, and then the House approved the ERA bill.

Some Republicans say Democrats are abusing their new power.

“When you feel like one side dictates all the terms, I do think it exacerbates . . . differences in ways that are unhealthy,” said Del. Nicholas J. Freitas (R-Culpeper). [GreyhoundFan adds -- this was just fine with them when the Rs dictated everything, but suddenly it's an issue. Poor, disenfranchised white men...]

“I really think it’s going to just build in the weeks ahead as we see pretty dramatic policy shifts in areas that relate to business, taxation . . . abortion [and] other things,” said Del. David A. LaRock (R-Loudoun).

Earlier this month, with one eye on history and the other on the gun rights movement sweeping across Virginia, Republicans in the West Virginia legislature advanced a resolution inviting neighboring Frederick County to cross the border and join the mountain state. Such an offer had technically been on the table since the Civil War, when West Virginia broke away from Richmond rather than secede.

“West Virginia has a very strong tradition of being jealous and guarding individual liberties, including those that are protected by the Second Amendment,” West Virginia state Sen. Charles S. Trump IV, who sponsored the resolution, said in an interview.

While no one in Richmond seems keen on the idea, the proposal got LaRock thinking about how Alexandria and Arlington were originally included in the District of Columbia, until changing laws on slavery caused them to leave in the 1840s.

Maybe, he told a local newspaper, they should go back.

There are “dramatically different values” in Arlington and Alexandria than other parts of Virginia, LaRock said in an interview with The Washington Post. While the idea initially was just to illustrate “general dissatisfaction” with changes in Richmond, LaRock said he’s half-serious about it.

“If I saw a proposal that was widely accepted by many, many others and was the most peaceful way to reconcile some of the situations now that are kind of beginning to build, I would entertain that possibility,” he said.

But the problem for Republicans is that the values LaRock sees in Arlington and Alexandria have spread throughout the state. In last fall’s elections, it was suburban districts in places such as Prince William County, Chesterfield County outside Richmond and parts of Hampton Roads that gave Democrats their majorities in the legislature.

“This is them realizing and being disappointed that they didn’t get more votes than they did,” Del. Jerrauld C. “Jay” Jones (D-Norfolk) said. “We are executing the will of the people of Virginia who came out to the ballot box.”

Northam, who has become the focus of rage from pro-gun activists for his promise of gun control, said through a spokeswoman that his agenda is more in step with the values of people across the state.

“Virginians have long supported things like universal background checks, ending the attacks on women’s rights, and ensuring workers can support themselves and their families,” the governor said in a written statement. “The difference is now, our legislature is finally listening.”

It’s ironic that Northam — who hails from the Eastern Shore and used to vote for Republicans — has become the bane of conservatives. When he ran for governor in 2017, some Democrats worried his rural roots and country accent would alienate suburban voters.

The day after the Richmond gun rally, Northam appeared in Franklin County in far Southwest Virginia — a place that has declared itself a Second Amendment sanctuary — to tout a business that was expanding. The next day, he announced a series of grants to expand rural broadband.

But his agenda for the coming weeks of the session is unabashedly blue. Even before Democrats have finished approving gun-control bills, they will move on to measures that expand voter access and ban discrimination against LGBTQ people. Democrats in the legislature also hope to raise the minimum wage, decriminalize marijuana, eliminate cash bail and more.

Roem, who in only her second term is now the first openly transgender person to chair a subcommittee, said Republicans need to get over it.

“Keep in mind that those of us from Northern Virginia had to very much live with a state that was run in large part by people from places outside of Northern Virginia for a long time,” she said.

Now that the state’s most populous and wealthy region is in charge, she said, the message isn’t separation; it’s inclusion.

“We’re just reflective of where we are as a commonwealth,” Roem said. “That doesn’t change the fact that we have different parties, different regions, different values. . . . Everyone just needs to learn how to coexist.”

 

[fraurosena]

27 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The Rs from rural Virginia have held the bulk of the power for decades. Now they're all butthurt because they can't run roughshod over the rest of the state anymore: "This is what a blue state looks like: Rapid change roils Virginia Republicans"

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RICHMOND — One Republican delegate warns that Virginia is splitting in two. Another would support returning liberal Arlington and Alexandria to the District of Columbia. Lawmakers in West Virginia have offered to annex rural Frederick County, outside Winchester, to liberate it from its rapidly urbanizing home.

The change that Democrats promised in last fall’s election campaigns is hitting Richmond with full force, casting new light on political and cultural divisions that have simmered for years. As leaders quickly advance gun control, women’s rights and LGBTQ protections, many Republicans charge that they’re trampling on the interests of a new minority: rural conservatives who long held sway in the Capitol.

“We don’t need one part of Virginia pitted against another just because of a political agenda,” House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) said.

Last week’s massive gun rights rally was the rawest reaction yet to the demographic shifts turning Virginia from red to blue. While the state’s electorate has been tilting Democratic for more than a decade, this year’s General Assembly session shows what consolidated power looks like, with blue majorities in the legislature joining forces with Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam.

The abrupt change is playing out in ways large and small. Democrats grabbed national attention for approving the Equal Rights Amendment, while also changing the pronouns in official House rules from “he/him” to “she/her.” The weekly “Speaker’s Bible study” has become an “interfaith devotional” that kicked off with a rabbi. The word “Militia” is gone from the name of the House Public Safety Committee.

Democrats say the changes are meant to be more inclusive. “We’re telling people, ‘Yes, you belong here, you have someone you can relate to here,’ ” said Del. Danica A. Roem (D-Prince William), Virginia’s first openly transgender state lawmaker.

Women and minorities have vaulted into historic positions of power. Beyond the first female Speaker and House majority leader, African Americans chair seven of the 14 standing House committees, including the powerful Appropriations Committee that controls state purse strings.

Regionally, the shift is equally striking. In both the House and Senate, Democrats from the D.C. suburbs control the majority of committee chairmanships; under Republicans, the powerful jobs were distributed to lawmakers from all over the state, with a tilt toward rural areas.

The upshot is that white men from red parts of Virginia hold less power this year than any time since Reconstruction.

In a sense, the change addresses old imbalances — and not just racial ones. Northern Virginia has never had positions of influence equal to its proportion of the state’s population and wealth, particularly in the House of Delegates. And Republicans over the past quarter-century have used their majorities to pass measures that Democrats found extreme, such as requiring ultrasounds before abortions or undoing any hint of restrictions on guns.

Northam’s predecessor, Terry McAuliffe (D), vetoed more bills than any governor in state history in what he called a “brick wall” against the excesses of a Republican-controlled legislature.

The Senate, which has flipped control more often than the House, has made the transition fairly smoothly — though Republicans complained that no members from the mountainous southwest are part of the powerful Finance Committee.

In the House, which was under GOP control for 24 years, the shift has been painful. Former House speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) opted not to take over as minority leader and sits quietly during floor sessions, grimacing and whispering with colleagues.

Del. Robert D. Orrock Sr. (R-Caroline), the GOP’s master of parliamentary rules, routinely bounces to his feet to challenge Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) on what he says are procedural errors. Gilbert, the minority leader, lectured the new leadership in an extraordinary speech Jan. 17.

“I realize this is a jubilant time for Democrats,” Gilbert said, while warning of “growing concern about how we are functioning as an institution.” The pace of taking up bills was too slow, he said, pointing out that the session would be 14 days old before the first measures were likely to pass out of the House.

Committees have canceled meetings, he noted, and legislative aides complained of low morale. The session “seems slow, it seems awkward and it doesn’t seem like it is getting any better,” he said.

Filler-Corn responded with a frosty promise that work will be done on time. And Del. Luke E. Torian (D-Prince William), the first African American to chair the Appropriations Committee, angrily instructed Gilbert not to “single us out as though we are lazy.”

Privately, many Democrats said they bristled at the optics of Gilbert, a white man, seeming to question the competence of female and black leaders.

The phenomenon repeated Monday when Gilbert led an attack on a bill loosening abortion restrictions as a large crowd of women waited in the House gallery to witness final passage of the ERA. Lobbing repeated questions at House Majority Leader Charniele L. Herring (D-Alexandria), the bill’s sponsor, Gilbert at one point suggested she had missed something because she was consulting a colleague.

“I am standing here on my own,” Herring shot back. Filler-Corn soon cut off debate. The abortion rights bill advanced, and then the House approved the ERA bill.

Some Republicans say Democrats are abusing their new power.

“When you feel like one side dictates all the terms, I do think it exacerbates . . . differences in ways that are unhealthy,” said Del. Nicholas J. Freitas (R-Culpeper). [GreyhoundFan adds -- this was just fine with them when the Rs dictated everything, but suddenly it's an issue. Poor, disenfranchised white men...]

“I really think it’s going to just build in the weeks ahead as we see pretty dramatic policy shifts in areas that relate to business, taxation . . . abortion [and] other things,” said Del. David A. LaRock (R-Loudoun).

Earlier this month, with one eye on history and the other on the gun rights movement sweeping across Virginia, Republicans in the West Virginia legislature advanced a resolution inviting neighboring Frederick County to cross the border and join the mountain state. Such an offer had technically been on the table since the Civil War, when West Virginia broke away from Richmond rather than secede.

“West Virginia has a very strong tradition of being jealous and guarding individual liberties, including those that are protected by the Second Amendment,” West Virginia state Sen. Charles S. Trump IV, who sponsored the resolution, said in an interview.

While no one in Richmond seems keen on the idea, the proposal got LaRock thinking about how Alexandria and Arlington were originally included in the District of Columbia, until changing laws on slavery caused them to leave in the 1840s.

Maybe, he told a local newspaper, they should go back.

There are “dramatically different values” in Arlington and Alexandria than other parts of Virginia, LaRock said in an interview with The Washington Post. While the idea initially was just to illustrate “general dissatisfaction” with changes in Richmond, LaRock said he’s half-serious about it.

“If I saw a proposal that was widely accepted by many, many others and was the most peaceful way to reconcile some of the situations now that are kind of beginning to build, I would entertain that possibility,” he said.

But the problem for Republicans is that the values LaRock sees in Arlington and Alexandria have spread throughout the state. In last fall’s elections, it was suburban districts in places such as Prince William County, Chesterfield County outside Richmond and parts of Hampton Roads that gave Democrats their majorities in the legislature.

“This is them realizing and being disappointed that they didn’t get more votes than they did,” Del. Jerrauld C. “Jay” Jones (D-Norfolk) said. “We are executing the will of the people of Virginia who came out to the ballot box.”

Northam, who has become the focus of rage from pro-gun activists for his promise of gun control, said through a spokeswoman that his agenda is more in step with the values of people across the state.

“Virginians have long supported things like universal background checks, ending the attacks on women’s rights, and ensuring workers can support themselves and their families,” the governor said in a written statement. “The difference is now, our legislature is finally listening.”

It’s ironic that Northam — who hails from the Eastern Shore and used to vote for Republicans — has become the bane of conservatives. When he ran for governor in 2017, some Democrats worried his rural roots and country accent would alienate suburban voters.

The day after the Richmond gun rally, Northam appeared in Franklin County in far Southwest Virginia — a place that has declared itself a Second Amendment sanctuary — to tout a business that was expanding. The next day, he announced a series of grants to expand rural broadband.

But his agenda for the coming weeks of the session is unabashedly blue. Even before Democrats have finished approving gun-control bills, they will move on to measures that expand voter access and ban discrimination against LGBTQ people. Democrats in the legislature also hope to raise the minimum wage, decriminalize marijuana, eliminate cash bail and more.

Roem, who in only her second term is now the first openly transgender person to chair a subcommittee, said Republicans need to get over it.

“Keep in mind that those of us from Northern Virginia had to very much live with a state that was run in large part by people from places outside of Northern Virginia for a long time,” she said.

Now that the state’s most populous and wealthy region is in charge, she said, the message isn’t separation; it’s inclusion.

“We’re just reflective of where we are as a commonwealth,” Roem said. “That doesn’t change the fact that we have different parties, different regions, different values. . . . Everyone just needs to learn how to coexist.”

 

I sincerely hope America follows this example. It’s time your governments reflect the will of the people. Time for angry old white men to sit down and shut up. Their time is up.

[GreyhoundFan]

Butthurt Rs are screaming:" Virginia’s Democratically controlled House passes seven gun control measures"

Spoiler

RICHMOND — Democrats in the House of Delegates on Thursday passed seven of the eight gun-control measures advocated by Gov. Ralph Northam, a significant step for an issue that Republicans had blocked for decades.

In debate ahead of the votes, lawmakers showed flashes of the emotion that has supercharged the gun-control issue in Virginia in recent weeks.

Republicans from rural areas said the actions betrayed their way of life and the wishes of thousands of armed gun rights protesters who descended on Richmond last week. Invoking the heritage of the American Revolution and a society “forged from wilderness,” Del. Les Adams (R-Pittsylvania) warned that the bills “are strongly resented by our people.”

But Democrats noted that voters gave them a 55-45 majority in the House in the November elections, partly on the promise of gun control. They used that muscle to push the votes through in less time than it took Republicans to adjourn last summer’s 90-minute special session on gun control, where no votes were taken.

“For too many years this body has put the convenience of gun owners above all else,” Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) said in a floor speech. “Families are hurting. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The state Senate has also passed versions of five of the bills, meaning the chambers are likely to send measures to Northam (D) for his signature in the coming weeks.

Other bills are still alive in committees, though a proposed ban on assault weapons has hit snags in both the House and Senate, as lawmakers wrestle with how to define which guns would qualify and how the state would implement a ban. That was the lone measure from the governor’s agenda that did not get to the House floor Thursday.

On party-line votes, the House approved bills that would:

●Enact universal background checks on private gun sales.

●Require an owner to report the loss or theft of a firearm within 24 hours.

●Give local governments the authority to enact gun laws of their own, such as banning weapons in public buildings.

●Create a “red flag” law, or extreme risk protective order, under which authorities can temporarily seize firearms from someone deemed a threat to themselves or others.

●Limit handgun purchases to one per month, a policy that had been in effect in Virginia until 2012.

●Tighten the law prohibiting access to firearms for someone subject to a protective order.

●Make it a felony to “recklessly” leave a firearm within reach of anyone age 18 or younger, up from the current age of 14.

Those were all part of a package of measures Northam called for last year in the wake of a May 31 shooting in which a gunman killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building.

Republicans on Thursday renewed their charge that Democrats were capitalizing on the tragedy for political purposes. Adams, in a speech that drew a standing ovation from fellow Republicans, urged lawmakers to “reject the cynical politics that would tell us to never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Other GOP lawmakers questioned whether Democrats understood the impact of the bills. Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), the House minority leader, said the measure making it a felony to recklessly leave a loaded weapon near someone under 18 would outlaw the tradition of youth hunting.

“All those hunting scenarios that are so common in Virginia are going to be illegal now,” Gilbert said. “People putting forth this legislation may not understand what it does.”

But Del. Marcus B. Simon (D-Fairfax) pointed out that the bill specifies that access to the weapon must be “reckless,” and that such a law already exists for people under 14. So it would not, he said, affect youth hunting.

“Don’t tell us we don’t know how to read bills,” Simon snapped.

Democrats raised their own questions about confusion when Del. Nick Rush (R-Montgomery) said the bill allowing localities to pass gun-violence-prevention measures would be an imposition on the more than 100 counties, cities and towns that have passed resolutions asking not to have their Second Amendment rights trampled.

“They asked to be left out of this debate, to be left alone,” Rush said.

The bill’s sponsor, Del. Marcia S. “Cia” Price (D-Newport News), said that was no problem.

The measure “is permissive,” she said. “It would allow for any locality to not enact ordinances related to firearms.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is pitiful:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Good gravy: "The Constitution says it’s okay to shoot socialists, a GOP state legislator contends"

Spoiler

Rep. Rodney Garcia, a state lawmaker in Montana, told a roomful of Republicans he believes the U.S. Constitution says socialists can be jailed or shot simply for being socialists. Garcia initially made the statement at an election event, then he reiterated it to a Billings Gazette reporter.

The Republican Party in Montana swiftly rebuked him.

Garcia’s inflammatory assertion first came Friday night, after former interior secretary Ryan Zinke gave a speech at the party event in Helena. According to reporting from the Gazette, Garcia said he was concerned there were socialists “everywhere” in Billings, which he represents in House District 52.

Billings Gazette reporter Holly Michels later asked Garcia to clarify his remarks, and the lawmaker doubled down.

“So actually in the Constitution of the United States, [if you] are found guilty of being a socialist member you either go to prison or are shot,” Garcia told Michels.

Garcia was not able to say where he finds that in the Constitution, the Billings Gazette reported.

Anthony Johnstone, a law professor at the University of Montana, told The Washington Post that “nothing in the Constitution of the United States authorizes the government to punish socialists or anyone else on the basis of their political beliefs.” In fact, the First Amendment prohibits punishing political speech, and the Constitution of Montana “expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of political beliefs,” Johnstone said. All state lawmakers swear an oath to uphold those doctrines.

People often misunderstand the Treason Clause in Article III of the Constitution, interpreting it to justify punishment of political opponents, Johnstone said. The framers, he said, “were careful to define treason narrowly so it could not be used for merely political purposes.”

In his interview with the Billings Gazette, Garcia said it was fair to shoot or jail socialists in Montana and across the country because they are enemies.

“They’re enemies of the free state,” Garcia told Michels. “What do we do with our enemies in war? In Vietnam, [Afghanistan], all those. What did we do?”

Garcia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.

Spenser Merwin, executive director of the Montana Republican Party, released a statement criticizing Garcia’s remarks.

“Under no circumstance is violence against someone with opposing political views acceptable,” Merwin said. “It’s disappointing that this isolated incident took away from the weekend’s events which showcased the strength of our statewide candidates and the importance of the upcoming election.”

President Trump and other Republicans across the country have used the term socialism to stir fear among their supporters when speaking about Democratic candidates running for the White House as well as other elected officials. Some Democratic Party front-runners in the 2020 presidential race have been campaigning on programs that would give the federal government more control, but only one, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, associates himself with the word “socialism.” Sanders, who has served as an independent in his own state, has said he is a democratic socialist.

Socialism is an economic philosophy that advocates for public, collective ownership of the means of production in a society that would lead to less corporate power and more wealth distribution. Democratic socialists believe socialism should be achieved democratically and slowly replace the free markets of capitalism.

Garcia told the Billings Gazette that based on Facebook advertising he has seen, be believes there is an influx of socialism in Montana that is “very dangerous.”

“They’re teaching that to kids,” Garcia told the newspaper. “Thank God my grandkids know it’s wrong because I teach them. And it’s a very dangerous situation.”

Garcia’s 2018 opponent in the race for House District 52 was a transgender woman named Amelia Marquez who is also a self-described democratic socialist. She told the Billings Gazette she wishes Garcia “would continue to focus on the issues rather than this constant worry over things that are somewhat ludicrous.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

From the WaPo editorial board: "Sorry, Virginia Republicans. You lost an election. That’s no reason to secede."

Spoiler

ONE HUNDRED and fifty-eight years having elapsed in the wink of an eye, state lawmakers in West Virginia decided last month to renew their 1862 invitation to Frederick County, across the border in the sovereign commonwealth of Virginia, to switch states. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice sweetened the pot, telling all Virginia localities and citizens to “come on down!” should they feel grumpy in the Old Dominion — specifically about the Democratic takeover of the legislature in Richmond and resulting legislation that would tighten access to guns and loosen it for abortions. Heavily Republican West Virginia, he added, “is waiting for you with open arms.”

That was very neighborly of Mr. Justice, a Republican, and the GOP-dominated Senate in Charleston, which passed a resolution making its invitation official. That the offer was received by guffaws in Richmond, and elsewhere, didn’t dampen the governor’s boosterish enthusiasm. “We’ve got four incredible seasons,” he said.

Those must include a Season of Silliness. Localities in the United States don’t typically bed down with neighbors like subjects in a spouse-swapping drama. Besides, Republicans in Richmond (and even some Democrats) might object if Frederick County (pop. 88,000) tried to decamp to West Virginia — and take with it a heavily Republican electorate, as well as several GOP lawmakers.

The more concerning thing is that the Democrats’ victory in last fall’s Virginia legislative elections is indeed regarded by many Republicans in Richmond as akin to the invasion of a horde intent on expropriating their way of life. Hyperbole that would have been regarded as unhinged not long ago is now the stuff of quotidian sound bites. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, an evangelical campus with 15,000 students, said he wished his college town of Lynchburg, Va., would secede to West Virginia to escape the “barbaric, totalitarian and corrupt Democratic regime in Richmond.” At the time he spoke, Democrats had held power for less than three weeks.

In fact, Republicans have been badly out of step with Virginia voters for years. No GOP candidate has been elected to statewide office since 2009; the party managed to hold control of the legislature until this year mainly thanks to elaborately gerrymandered voting districts. Rather than moderating its positions to appeal to centrist voters in Northern Virginia and other Democratic-trending parts of the state, Republicans enacted measures restricting abortion availability and refusing even broadly popular gun-control legislation, such as tougher background checks for purchasers.

Virginia Democrats, who before their recent triumph had not held majorities in both houses of the General Assembly in more than two decades, surely did not revel in their prolonged political impotence. But they didn’t whine about wanting to secede and join another state.

Election victories in a democracy typically confer the power to enact legislation the other side opposes. That seems a novel concept to some Republicans in Richmond, who have been howling as though aliens have breached the city gates to pursue a “radical” agenda.

Memo to the GOP: Those aliens are your neighbors and every bit as Virginian as you are.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Hooray! "Virginia poised to become first Southern state banning LGBT discrimination"

Spoiler

RICHMOND — Sweeping LGBT rights legislation that bans discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations sailed out of the Virginia Senate and House on bipartisan votes Thursday.

Virginia would become the first Southern state to adopt such protections if the measures become law as expected. The bills also would for the first time apply Virginia’s civil rights protections to public accommodations such as restaurants and stores — not just for the LGBT community but also for racial minorities, women and religious groups.

The Senate and House bills have to cross over to the opposite chamber and win passage again before Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who requested the legislation, can sign them into law.

But those steps were seen as technicalities by advocates cheering what they regard as landmark human rights legislation.

“Its sends a message that the commonwealth is a safe and welcoming place for all people,” said Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who was Virginia’s first openly gay legislator when he joined the House of Delegates in 2004.

Today, the General Assembly has a five-member LGBT Caucus, including Del. Danica A. Roem (D-Prince William), the first openly transgender state lawmaker elected in the country.

The Virginia Senate has passed a more limited version of the legislation — banning discrimination in housing and public employment — for several years. Previously, Republican House leaders always killed those measures in committee.

Both chambers are under Democratic control this year for the first time in decades. The LGBT rights measures are part of a flood of Democratic priorities advancing this year, including bills to limit access to firearms, boost the minimum wage and loosen voting rules.

The legislation that advanced Thursday would prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing or public accommodations such as restaurants. It applies to public and private entities alike.

Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national group that invested in Virginia legislative campaigns last year, said there are 30 U.S. states where “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can be fired from their jobs and discriminated against in housing. Today we take Virginia off that list.”

The public accommodations portion of the bill was especially notable because Virginia — the former capital of the Confederacy, which bitterly resisted racial desegregation — is one of just five states with no public accommodations law of any kind.

So the bills would not simply add LGBT people to an existing list of protected classes that cannot be denied service. Instead they would create an entirely new public accommodations provision, making it unlawful to deny services to individuals “on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, or status as a veteran.”

“It’s long overdue,” House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said in an interview ahead of the House’s 59-to-35 vote. “We need to end discrimination for our LGBTQ friends and family and co-workers. There’s nothing more important than that.”

The Senate’s bill passed 30 to 9, with nine of the chamber’s 19 Republicans voting in favor. Nine were against, and one GOP senator was off the floor when voting took place.

The measures make some exceptions for religious organizations, such as hiring by certain religious schools.

Sen. David R. Suetterlein (R-Roanoke), who in the past has supported bills banning ­anti-LGBT discrimination in housing and public employment, said he could not support this year’s more sweeping measure. He said religious rights could be threatened by including private employers and public accommodations.

“I’m happy to see fair housing and the state hiring provisions,” he said. “I just have concerns about the other provisions.”

In January, the Senate voted to ban conversion therapy on children, repeal the state’s now-defunct ban on same-sex marriage and establish statewide policies for the treatment of transgender students.

The chamber also voted to replace “husband and wife” with gender-neutral “parties to the marriage” language in divorce law and make it easier for transgender people to change how their sex is listed on their birth certificates.

With no debate and one Republican on board, the Senate voted Wednesday to allow “non-binary” Virginians to designate “X” on their driver’s licenses, instead of “M” or “F.”

 

[fraurosena]

Maybe this is a silly question, @GreyhoundFan, but why does Virginia refer to itself as a 'commonwealth', and not a state?

[GreyhoundFan]

4 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Maybe this is a silly question, @GreyhoundFan, but why does Virginia refer to itself as a 'commonwealth', and not a state?

It's mostly symbolic. There are four states and two territories that also use that name,