Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Editorial: Discrimination should be illegal
An executive order protecting gays from discrimination isn't enough.
From the RoundTable blog
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A former state employee says he was fired because his boss found out he was gay. When he filed suit, the Circuit Court of the city of Martinsville said that an executive order signed by Gov. Tim Kaine prohibiting such discrimination against state employees provides no legal protection for him.
The court may be correct. An executive order is a thin shield in such matters.
"It looks as if they're saying the executive order in 2006 doesn't basically do anything," Michael Hamar, who says he was fired from the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville after the museum's executive director discovered his sexual orientation, told The Washington Blade.
Through his spokesman, Kaine said the executive order would remain in effect, but as an internal policy. Workers who are fired or discriminated against because of their sexual orientation can seek redress through the state's personnel procedures, said spokesman Gordon Hickey.
That's less than adequate. The decision by the Martinsville court should be a convincing sign to the General Assembly that protection against such discrimination must be written into Virginia's code. Only a law will offer genuine confidence to Virginia's gay employees that they won't face irrational threats to their employment based on their sexual orientation.
It would be better if such protection were guaranteed to all workers in Virginia, not just state employees, but a law making it official state policy not to discriminate against public employees because of their sexual orientation would at least be a start.
