In an executive directive issued late Wednesday, Gov. Bob McDonnell seemed to contradict a letter sent by the state attorney general to public colleges and universities last week directing them to strip protections for gays and lesbians from their nondiscrimination policies.

"I hereby direct that the hiring, promotion, compensation, treatment, discipline, and termination of state employees shall be based on an individual's job qualifications, merit and performance," McDonnell's directive stated.

A companion letter sent to all state employees went further, stating that "independent agencies and state supported colleges and universities should likewise adopt a similar standard of conduct."

"I believe the university community will welcome his words," Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker wrote of McDonnell's directive in an e-mail Wednesday.

"The university worked for a long time on our Principles of Community" and the community considers them "central to [our] institutional philosophy on civility and mutual respect. We believe that the governor's executive directive is consistent with the philosophies embedded in the principles," Hincker wrote.

Like a string of other Republican attorneys general before him, including McDonnell, Ken Cuccinelli argued in a March 4 letter to university presidents and boards of visitors that they have no authority to protect the rights of gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities without an act of the General Assembly.

Bills that would add sexual orientation to the state's list of classes protected from employment discrimination have repeatedly failed in the state legislature -- one as recently as last week.

McDonnell took no position on that bill.

The Family Foundation of Virginia backed Cuccinelli's letter last week, saying the attorney general was simply asking colleges and universities to abide by state law. After McDonnell's directive was issued, the foundation said in a statement that it agrees with merit-based employment while continuing "to maintain that adding additional classes of persons to the Commonwealth's non-discrimination policy is unnecessary."

Cuccinelli's letter sparked a firestorm of criticism from gay rights advocates, state Democrats and faculty, students and alumni of major universities. Even students and faculty away on spring break rallied against the attorney general on various Facebook pages.

Tech senior Phillip Murillas, 22, posted one of those pages.

"In principle, I've always supported equality ... but I've rarely gone out and protested," he said.

But with Cuccinelli's letter, Murillas said, "the anti-gay movement had finally encroached on my territory. I've always agreed with Tech being inclusive in its nondiscrimination policy. ... It's important that we stay progressive and inclusive."

The governor argued in his directive that discrimination based on sexual orientation violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, and that he expects all state agencies to "adopt a standard of conduct" consistent with that clause.

Cuccinelli's office released a statement late Wednesday applauding "Governor McDonnell for the tone he is setting for the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Before McDonnell issued the directive, Cuccinelli said in an interview with Blue Ridge Business Journal freelance writer Jim Babb that the controversy over his letter had been overblown. The Business Journal is owned by the parent company of The Roanoke Times.

"There is no acceptance of discrimination against anybody -- purple people, fat people, you name it," Cuccinelli said. "Let's face it, in higher ed, there's no serious danger of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, except perhaps that those who do not think that homosexuality is appropriate or ought to be accepted under the law are discriminated against for that belief."

Despite the strong wording of the directive issued Wednesday, it amounts to a policy statement, and lacks the weight of law accorded to an executive order. McDonnell's Executive Order No. 6 issued on Feb. 5 remains in effect, press secretary Stacey Johnson said.

That order reversed former Gov. Tim Kaine's extension of some protections to gay and lesbian state workers in 2006.

But even Kaine's order -- and a similar order issued by then-Gov. Mark Warner -- extended only limited protections, Richmond employment attorney Harris Butler said.

While the Kaine and Warner orders gave gay and lesbian state employees the right to file formal grievances, allowed for the discipline of supervisors who discriminated against them and protected employees from retribution stemming from complaints, those employees were not entitled to seek court-ordered damages.

"In order to get damages, it would take an act of the [state] legislature or [the U.S.] Congress. ... It can't be done by fiat through an executive order," Butler said.

The text of McDonnell's directive seemed Wednesday to allow for some sort of complaint and disciplinary process for discrimination based on sexual orientation, but the degree of its protection remained murky.