House panel scraps Marshall's bill on denying service to LGBT people

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Joe.My.God: VIRGINIA: Lawmakers Kill Bill That Would Have Legalized Anti-Gay Discrimination

House panel scraps Marshall's bill on denying service to LGBT people

Posted: Thursday, January 29, 2015 5:31 pm

By Markus Schmidt Richmond Times-Dispatch

A House panel on Thursday effectively killed legislation that would allow anyone holding a state license, including business owners, lawyers and doctors, to deny services to gay people without facing disciplinary action. ... But the panel defeated a proposal that would have added sexual discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as an unlawful housing practice. A measure that would have updated the Virginia Human Rights Act to include the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment also failed in a House Rules subcommittee.

Several civic and gay rights groups had opposed HB 1414, sponsored by Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William County, fearing that it would legalize discrimination against LGBT people. ... “This bill would have hurt too many people, damaged our business climate, and highlighted Virginia as a hostile and unwelcoming place to live and work,” said James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia.

But Marshall said Thursday his opponents had misrepresented his proposal. He insisted that the measure had nothing to do with “denying gay people” their rights. ... His bill, Marshall told the committee, would have, for example, prohibited the state from conditioning issuance of a license to a clinical psychologist on acceptance of counseling in favor of same-sex marriage or same-sex behavior.

But under Marshall’s proposal, no person with a government issued license, registration or certificate would have been required to participate in any action that would “violate the religious or moral convictions of such person with respect to same-sex marriage or homosexual behavior.” ... Marshall was the House sponsor of the 2006 amendment to the state Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman. ... Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said Marshall’s bill was designed, among other things, to make it acceptable for a state-licensed lawyer to refuse doing divorces for same-sex couples.

Posted in General assembly, Virginia on Thursday, January 29, 2015 5:31 pm.

© 2015 THE ROANOKE TIMES



Bob Brown | Richmond-Times Dispatch

Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, foreground, prepares papers as he gets ready to address a General Laws subcommittee in the General Assembly Building in Richmond, VA Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. His bill, HB1414, failed to pass the group.