SB 66, the state employment nondiscrimination bill, is being heard in subcommittee today at 5:00 pm. Please contact the committee members and let them know that there is no excuse – none – for opposing this.
Cosgrove (Chairman), Carrico, Scott, E.T., Gilbert, Anderson, Ward, Carr, Torian
A big thank you to Rick Sincere from the Republican Liberty Caucus for the videos of yesterday’s press conference.
From the Daily Press:
“We believe it is not the place of the government to discriminate on irrelevant characteristics in employment for otherwise law-abiding citizens and taxpayers,” Sincere said.
Had the bill sought to bind private employers the same way, he said, the group would not support it. “But the private sector is way ahead of the government in terms of nondiscrimination policies.”
The legislation assumes additional relevance because of Virginia’s effort to persuade the state’s largest private employer, Northrop-Grumman, to move its corporate offices and 300 lucrative jobs to Virginia. The corporation already owns the enormous Navy shipbuilding facility in Newport News and holds a 10-year, $2.4 billion conversion contract with state government, the largest single-vendor contract ever in Virginia.
Maryland, also competing for the headquarters, sought an advantage by noting McDonnell’s decision to omit protections for gays in his executive anti-discrimination order.
“Here in Maryland, we value our gay and lesbian citizens as part of a diverse population that makes the state strong,” Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. wrote in a Feb. 25 letter to Northrop Grumman CEO Wesley Bush. “Across the Potomac, Virginia is doing the opposite.”