State workers in Virginia who are gay and lesbian have had their protection against discrimination removed thanks to new Governor Bob McDonnell who on February 5th signed an executive order which prohibits discrimination:

“on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, political affiliation, or against otherwise qualified persons with disabilities,”

Acting to void the  order signed by Governor  Tim Kaine on January 16th 2006, this new bill does retain Kaine’s addition of veterans to the  non-discrimination policy but removes another – that of sexual orientation.

McDonnell’s office have released a memo saying they believe the new policy prevents all forms of discrimation, with one part reading:

It shall be the policy of the office of the Governor to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace, encourage excellence by rewarding achievement based on merit, and prohibit discrimination for any reason. Hiring, promotion, discipline and termination of employees shall be based on qualifications, performance and results

Many in the LGBT community however believe that this isn’t true as the protections they were previously guaranteed have now been stripped away which could make any legal challenges hard. Kaine has so far not committed on the order but his spokesman, Hari Sevugan, said he felt McDonnell should be ashamed of the new policy stating:

It says a lot about the Republican party that they would anoint as their ‘rising star’ someone who in 2010 is actually stripping away from Americans legal protections against discrimination. Bob McDonnell is proving his critics right. He said he’d focus on creating jobs, not social issues. But, one of his first acts as Governor was to make it easier for a fellow citizen to be denied a job and he did so as an adherent to a right-wing ideology that allows for such discriminatory behavior. McDonnell’s decision is just plain wrong in any context, but especially so in this economic climate.

This action by McDonnell is made worse by the fact that the Washington Post reports a measure passed by the Democratic-controlled state Senate to protect state workers from discrimination due to sexual orientation,  gender identity or expression is set to fail in the Republican controlled House.

Telling the reporter that they’d shown the NYPD that their friend’s lip had been cut when he got hit, he went on to talk about how they’d then said that they couldn’t arrest anyone for assault as there was no physical injury.

Questioning how this could be when they’d shown them the cut, the NYPD has responded that it had to be a bigger injury than that, and that it was impossible to charge the assiliant with harrassment because they hadn’t seen anything.

Following the report on ABC7,  the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force have met with victims and once we have information on the outcome we’ll update you.

The ABC7 Report On The NYPD Neglecting To Investigate Hate Crime

Via Trowleroad.