Anti-gay Virginia lawmaker Bob Marshall
Legislation has been introduced in Virginia that would allow anyone seeking or holding a business license from the state of Virginia to refuse service or entry to gay people, on the grounds it “would violate the religious or moral convictions of such person with respect to same-sex “marriage” or homosexual behavior,” according to this report by Addicting Info.
House Bill 1414, pre-filed Jan. 14 in the Virginia General Assembly, is being spear-headed by anti-gay lawmaker Bob Marshall. Marshall is notorious for his unsuccessful effort to exclude gays from the Virginia National Guard and for his attempt in 2012 to block the appointment of a judge on the grounds that the nominee was gay, saying that “sodomy is not a civil right.”
Luckily, Virginia’s governor is Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who has a “track record of expanding protections for LGBT people,” said Christy Mallory, senior counsel at the Williams Institute, who has been tracking nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people across the country. If the Virginia Legislature were to pass the bill, McAuliffe could veto it to keep it from becoming law.
