As I noted earlier this week, Mark Warner has been a busy beaver in his closing weeks as Governor of Virginia. First, on Tuesday (12/13), Warner announced that he would ask for $242.5 million for the Chesapeake Bay when he submitted his 2-year budget plan to the General Assembly on Friday (yesterday). Then, on Wednesday (12/14), Warner announced that, in lart part thanks to his initiative, two innocent Virginians had been exonerated for rapes they did not commit. Yesterday, Warner made another significant move, issung an Executive Order that "for the first time explicitly banned Virginia state agencies from discriminating against gays in hiring and promotions." The Executive Order takes effect immediately. For good measure, Warner added the words "sexual orientation" to nondiscrimation language in the 2006-2008 budget he submitted yesterday. Now, it will be illegal to discriminate in "[Virginia] state employment on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, or political affiliation, or against otherwise qualified persons with disabilities."
This is yet another great move by Governor Warner, as he prepares to leave office in just a few weeks. And, because we elected Tim Kaine as Governor instead of Jerry Kilgore, this policy will continue after Warner is gone, as Kaine has said he will sign the same Executive Order when he takes office on January 14, 2006. Virginia thus enters the 21st century with regard to non-discrimination against gays in hiring decisions. According to Warner's budget press release, the Commonwealth's government now joins "eight out of 10 of Virginia?s largest employers, the majority of the states, and the majority of the members of the General Assembly in their own hiring."
What's amazing about Gov. Warner's action is that, just a few years ago, it might have been considered exceptional. Today, however, is a different time, when a movie about two gay cowboys can immediately jump into the lead for the Academy Awards and draw huge crowds at the box office. A time when an openly gay man can become mayor of Wyoming's second largest city. And a time when Ford Motor Co. is willing to stand up to pressure from radical, right-wing groups by announcing that it will continue to advertise in "gay-themed publications" (Ford also "reiterated its commitment to supporting gay employees in the automaker's workforce").
Still, this is a courageous move by Gov. Warner, and I strongly support him for it. Now, it will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially with anti-gay bigots like Bob Marshall in the Virginia General Assembly and also, possibly, in the Attorney General's office (if "Taliban Bob" McDonnell holds on to his 323-vote margin when a kind-of, sort-of recount is conducted next week). Let's see if Mark Warner and Tim Kaine can persuade Bob Marshall, Bob McDonnell, and others of their ilk to join the rest of us in 21st century America. Or, will we find out that these guys - and they're almost all Republican guys, by the way - simply refuse to adjust to changing times and soften their hearts about homosexuals. Stay tuned...