Wingnut Bob, we see right through this act. No dice.

“Discrimination based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation or parental status violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Therefore, discrimination against enumerated classes of persons set forth in the Virginia Human Rights Act or discrimination against any class of persons without a rational basis is prohibited,” McDonnell said in his directive.

We all know that signing this executive directive is meaningless; your henchman Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli stated quite boldly that there’s no law on the books of the Commonwealth that protects state workers from discrimination on the job.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who says there’s nothing in Virginia law to protect gay state workers from discrimination, is welcoming Gov. Bob McDonnell’s decree against bias on the basis of sexual orientation.

However, it’s not clear from a written statement just issued by Cuccinelli whether he backs the governor’s legal thinking in issuing a so-called executive directive protecting gay employees.

“I applaud Gov. McDonnell for the tone he is setting for the commonwealth of Virginia,” said Cuccinelli.

“I will remain in contact with the governor and continue to work with him on issues important to Virginians. I expect Virginia’s state employees to follow all state and federal anti-discrimination laws and will enforce Virginia’s laws to the fullest extent.”

We’re not stupid — the fullest extent doesn’t specify sexual orientation or gender identity. Cases brought under Gov. Tim Kaine’s tenure were futile in saving jobs where discrimination based on sexual orientation was the complaint.

What we see here is a PR maneuver, not actual change in philosophy or policy. There is no guarantee that a witchhunt will not occur with McDonnell/Cuccinelli at the helm.

What scares McDonnell most is whether businesses will stay away from settling in the Commonwealth because its climate is intolerant, backwards and threatening to a diverse workforce.

Northrop Grumman is one of those companies. And if McDonnell wants to be known as the Jobs Governor and Northrop chooses say, Maryland, or D.C., he’s going to be bounced right out of there. And Maryland is playing hardball. Maryland State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery):

“Here in Maryland, we value our gay and lesbian citizens as part of a diverse population that makes the state strong,” Madaleno wrote. “Virginia is doing the opposite and letting its LGBT citizens — and those considering whether to move and work there — know that they and their families are unwelcome second-class citizens. And they are counting on corporations like yours not to care.”

The Los Angeles-based company is currently deciding between Virginia, Maryland and the District as a new home for its 300 top executives, running an unusually public contest among the three.

Madaleno, who is gay, wrote that new Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) are “turning back the clock” on gay rights, as Maryland’s attorney general has announced the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Virginia voters in 2006 amended the state constitution to prohibit gay marriage.

On Friday, the chief executive office of Equality Virginia, a gay rights group, sent Northrop Grumman CEO Wesley Bush a similar letter.

The waves of pressure became intolerable today after the Virginia Young Democrats and other groups called for demonstrations and online actions. It’s response to McDonnell’s executive degree today.

As Attorney General Cuccinelli carefully avoided pointing out in his somewhat vague statement: the law remains the same. The Virginia Code still does not protect GLBT Virginians from discrimination in the workplace, public or private. Governor McDonnell should do more than say the state won’t discriminate against gays: he should work to make it law. We call on Governor McDonnell to pledge that he will introduce and support legislation codifying protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender state employees.

There were also blistering remarks on the floor of the General Assembly that McDonnell and Cuccinelli had to contend with. David Englin’s speech laid it all out; the GOP denizens of discrimination blocked any action on an anti-discrimination bill, but these words were heard by all of them.

Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen, as you just heard from the Gentleman from Henrico, Delegate Morrissey, at public colleges across Virginia, students, faculty, and tuition-paying parents share the outrage you have heard expressed on this floor about Attorney General Cuccinelli’s demand that Virginia’s colleges remove sexual orientation from their nondiscrimination rules. They share our outrage, and they want action.

We have tried multiple times in this House and on the floor to fix this problem. Sadly, the General Laws committee chose to cancel its Monday meeting rather than work to move forward with the Senate nondiscrimination bill. That’s especially unfortunate, because I believe there are good people on both sides of the aisle in that committee who should be willing to do what’s right on this issue. Yesterday, we tried the extraordinary measure of a discharge motion to bring up that bill, but that, too, was defeated. Now, our last chance to protect the quality, reputation, and accreditation of Virginia’s public colleges and universities, and to protect Virginia’s pro-business climate, is for us to join together and urge Governor McDonnell to send down his own higher education nondiscrimination bill.

Even if one is willing to set aside the moral outrage that is an Attorney General wasting taxpayer money by seeking to hinder equal protection under the law, we need Governor McDonnell to act now because his Attorney General’s actions are destructive to higher education and destructive to our economic future.

Englin’s address continues below the fold.

Virginia’s public colleges and universities have nondiscrimination policies in place not only because judging faculty, staff, and students on merit is the right thing to do, but also because their accreditation requires it. For example, the national accrediting bodies that govern medical schools, teacher training programs, and schools of social work require nondiscrimination policies as part of their accreditation standards. After all, do you really think a conservative institution like Liberty University would include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policies unless it absolutely had to? Ask yourself, do you really want to let Ken Cuccinelli’s anti-gay crusade risk the accreditation of our schools?

Moreover, the quality of higher education in Virginia is a key factor in our continued ranking by Forbes.com and others as the Best State for Business. By sullying the reputation of our system of higher learning and hindering the ability of our top universities to recruit and retain the very best faculty and staff, the Attorney General is risking our future status as Best State for Business. Ask yourself, do you really want to let Ken Cuccinelli’s anti-gay crusade risk Virginia’s status as Best State for Business?

And speaking of business, businesses throughout Virginia understand that employees should be judged solely on their merit and not on other unrelated factors. The ten largest corporate employers in Virginia have active nondiscrimination policies. Northrop Grumman, whose corporate headquarters we are trying to lure here from California, wins perfect marks from the Human Rights Campaign for equal treatment of its gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers. Do you really want to let Ken Cuccinelli’s anti-gay crusade risk thousands of good-paying jobs in Virginia?

Mr. Speaker, this issue is not going away.

I recognize that it takes no special courage for a Northern Virginia liberal to stand up — every day if necessary — to demand fair and equal treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers.

But I remind you that conservative Republican icon, Barry Goldwater, said of gays in the military, “I don’t care if they are straight, as long as they shoot straight.” In other words, the father of the modern American conservative movement urged that we judge workers not on their sexual orientation, but on their merit.

What we need in this case are more Barry Goldwaters. We need men and women of courage from across the aisle to stand up and say that — even if you are uncomfortable with the idea of somebody being gay — even if your faith or your personal beliefs cause you to oppose same-sex relationships — you still believe that workers should be judged on merit — on the job they do.

We need men and women of courage from across the aisle who know in their heart of hearts that, decades from now, standing up for policies that treat workers fairly and based on merit will put them on the right side of history — men and women who will someday be revered for standing up for the rights of all people, and not painted with the same brush as bigots and segregationists.

Ladies and Gentlemen, based on yesterday’s vote, Delegates Albo, Rust, LeMunyon, Tata, and Villanueva are Republicans who are on the right side of history. But what about the rest of you?

I ask my other Republican friends: “Are there any Barry Goldwaters among you?” Or are you content to stand idly by, in silent complicity, and let Ken Cuccinelli destroy what we have worked to build.

Join us — urge Governor McDonnell to send down a bill that will protect the quality and reputation of higher education in Virginia, so together we can let the world know that Virginia is a place where employees will be judged on the job they do, not on the family they go home to.

Keep the pressure on.