EV at the General Assembly

Advocacy

At the General Assembly

EV at the General Assembly

Every year, Equality Virginia monitors all legislation introduced to the Virginia General Assembly and advocates on behalf of Virginia's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. We work to introduce and support gay-friendly legislation and to oppose and defeat anti-gay bills.

Don't know who your Delegate or Senator is? Look them up here.

Lobby Day is Tuesday, February 2, 2010. For more information and to register please click here.

Stay informed about the issues you care about!

Follow bills Equality Virginia is tracking in the General Assembly.

Talking Points: HB 1116 (Del. Ebbin, D Alexandria)
End Worklace Discrimination in Public Employment

Talking Points: SB 66 (Sen. McEachin, D Henrico)
End Workplace Discrimination in State Employment

Equality Virginia's position on bills before the 2010 General Assembly

NONDISCRIMINATION IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT –HB 1116 (EBBIN); SB 66 (McEachin) SUPPORT

· Governors since Holton have protected state employees from discrimination in employment. Warner and Kaine extended this protection to GLBT employees. It is now time to make this policy permanent and, in the case of HB 1116 extend it to all state and local employees.

It is a fundamental American and Virginian value that people who do their jobs, pay their taxes and contribute to their communities should not be singled out for unfair workplace discrimination.
90% of Virginia voters support ending discrimination against GLBT people in government employment.

GROUP LIFE INSURANCE – HB 352 (RUST) and SB 465 (HOWELL) SUPPORT

· This bill will allow employers to extend group life insurance policies to any class of persons as agreed to by the employer and its insurer as is now the case with group health insurance.

· Currently, the statute limits those who may be covered to a narrow class of individuals.

· This legislation will provide Virginia’s businesses with the flexibility to offer benefits packages to their employees that they feel are necessary to attract and retain the best employees in a competitive job market.

AMEND THE VIRGINIA HUMAN RIGHTS ACT – HB 1287 (PLUM AND SCOTT)

SUPPORT

· This bill would add sexual orientation (defined to include gender identity) to the protected classes now enumerated in the Virginia Human Rights Act. The effect of this bill will be to extend federal law protections into state law. When Federal ENDA passes, this will mean that all private employers in Virginia would also be covered by state law, and that the federal law could be enforced by the Virginia Human Rights Council.

AMEND THE VIRGINIA HATE CRIMES LAWS –HB 1142 (SCOTT) SUPPORT

· This bill would amend the Virginia hate crimes laws to create a civil and criminal action for harassment and violent conduct directed at a person simply because of his or her sexual orientation. It would add to the protections now afforded by the new federal hate crimes law.

EXPAND LOCAL HOME RULE—SB 451 (WHIPPLE) SUPPORT

· This legislation is a form of "home rule" legislation that would expand the ability of local governments to determine, as employers, what benefits they want to extend to their employees in order to be competitive in the market with private sector businesses.

REPEAL THE MARSHALL-NEWMAN AMENDMENT – HJR 55 (ENGLIN) SUPPORT

· This resolution is the necessary first step toward repealing the Marshall-Newman amendment that added to the bill of rights of the Virginia Constitution an amendment denying all relationship recognition to GLBT couples.

BUDGET AMENDMENT ITEM 76#1H (MARSHALL) OPPOSE

· This amendment would add to the budget language freezing eligibility for state health insurance benefits as of November 1, 2009. This would eliminate the authority of the executive branch to move forward with the proposal to allow state employees to buy health insurance for either a spouse or an otherwise qualified adult living in their household continuously for more than a year.