Obvious justice

The following editorial appeared Wednesday in the Washington Post:

Virginia has come late to the idea that employees and job-seekers should not be discriminated against because they may be homosexual. Now it has a chance to embrace the obvious justice of that policy. It is crucial that the opportunity not be missed.

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner, having ignored the subject for most of his term, issued an order in December, weeks before leaving office, prohibiting discrimination by state agencies in hiring and employment. Mr. Warner’s successor, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, reaffirmed the policy on taking office last month. Now the General Assembly is considering legislation to codify that principled stance and extend it to local governments and school systems. It’s as close to a no-brainer as legislation gets, but anti-gay legislators may still be able to kill it.

A sizable majority of the American work force is covered by state laws, executive orders or corporate policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Since the early 1980s, 17 states plus the District of Columbia have enacted laws banning such bias by public agencies as well as private companies; in 11 other states, now including Virginia, executive orders ban such discrimination by state government. Even in states whose political culture has been generally cool or hostile to the rights of homosexuals, large companies have taken it upon themselves to adopt rules banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation: in Georgia, Coca-Cola and UPS; in Texas, Radio Shack and Perot Systems. The trend is clear.

Still, in Virginia, gay-bashing has its champions. “There are eight different sexual orientations, including pedophilia and bestiality,” Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Fredericksburg, told the Post’s Rosalind S. Helderman. “I think we’d be opening up Pandora’s box and allowing judges to interpret what that means.”

Mr. Cole’s dark vision of bestial bureaucrats is certainly frightening, but the Virginia General Assembly has shown valor in the face of menace before – just think of its courage last year in rejecting a bill banning the wearing of low-slung, hip-hugging pants. In fact, the bill before the state Senate excludes those suffering from “sexually deviant disorders,” which presumably include bestiality and pedophilia. The legislation would simply do what nearly all of Virginia’s largest corporate employers (Wal-Mart, Northrop Grumman, Food Lion) and universities (the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, George Mason) have already done by adopting similar policies: that is, outlaw a particularly noxious form of bigotry whose day has quite definitely passed.