Gov. Ralph Northam and Democratic lawmakers held a ceremonial bill signing in Richmond this morning, celebrating the passage of the Virginia Values Act.
The bill signing was held at Diversity Richmond, a community space for the LGBTQ community. The Virginia Values Act was passed by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly earlier this year and provides comprehensive non-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people. At the bill signing, Northam addressed a socially-distanced crowd of legislators and LGBTQ advocates who had been fighting for discrimination protections for years.
He said the passage of the Virginia Values Act shows how far the state has come.
“We all want Virginia to be a diverse and inclusive state,” Northam said. “One where everyone feels welcome. A Virginia whose doors are open and lights are on.”
The Virginia Values Act bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Those protections apply to housing, employment and public accommodation,which means no business open to the public can turn away someone for being gay or transgender.
The relatively quick change in public sentiment toward the LGBTQ community was a common theme of the celebration.
Just 14 years ago, Virginia voters put a ban on same-sex marriage in the constitution. Virginia also had a statutory ban on same-sex marriage from 1974 to 2014. Both were essentially repealed by the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
State Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, was a sponsor of the Virginia Values Act. On Thursday, Ebbin recounted the legislative challenges the LGBTQ community faced when he was first elected to the General Assembly as an openly gay man in 2007.
“We were dealing just with anti-LGBTQ bills,” Ebbin said. “Once, in the same year, we had to deal with bills against gay marriage, against adoption by gay people, even a bill to provide for a ‘traditional marriage’ license plate. That’s the kind of environment we were in, and today we’ve seen a sea change.”
With the passage of the Virginia Value Act, Virginia becomes the first state in the South to have wide-ranging discrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
