Gov. Bob McDonnell says he's done enough to protect gays

RICHMOND - Gov. Bob McDonnell says he's done enough to protect gay state employees from discrimination in the workplace.

Rejecting Democratic demands that he seek last-minute legislation to add anti-bias safeguards to state law, McDonnell yesterday said his public pledge to oppose prejudice and fire those guilty of it is sufficient.

"I believe that takes care of it," said McDonnell, ducking a question on whether he chose not to press legislation to avoid angering his conservative Republican base.

The Democrat-dominated Virginia Senate endorsed a measure to include sexual orientation in anti-discrimination laws. The proposal died in the GOP-controlled House of Delegates.

McDonnell this week issued an "executive directive" extending largely symbolic protections to gay public employees.

He was forced to act because of the furor over an opinion by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that there is no legal basis for the state's public colleges to protect gay students and employees from bias based on sexual orientation.

Cuccinelli, a Republican, yesterday stood by his view and noted that it mirrors a 2006 opinion by McDonnell when he was attorney general.

Both lawyers have noted that Virginia law remains silent on sexual orientation and that only the legislature, which has backed protections for gender, race and faith, can change that.

"We certainly don't see anything that the governor would do by himself without the General Assembly as changing the policy of Virginia," Cuccinelli said.

The controversy over Cuccinelli's opinion has dominated the discourse at the Capitol for more than a week and has distracted McDonnell from his preferred focus on the budget and the economy.

Pressure -- direct and indirect -- on McDonnell's fledgling administration continued.

In a letter to McDonnell, Jon Blair, head of the gay-rights lobbying organization Equality Virginia, urged the governor to propose legislation to add sexual orientation to the anti-bias laws.

While welcoming McDonnell's directive, Blair said that for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians, "the basic right to attend school and college and work in public workplaces free of discrimination remains unsecured."

And former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, a Democrat who served as attorney general from 1982 to 1985, challenged the legal scholarship on which Cuccinelli's opinion rests.

Baliles said Cuccinelli has misinterpreted a 1982 opinion -- by Baliles -- that spotlighted the limits of local government to address discrimination without the sanction of the General Assembly.

While the powers of localities derive from the state, taxpayer-supported colleges -- unless the legislature determines otherwise -- are free to establish "standards of conduct," said Baliles, including presumably policies protecting gays.

Baliles, retired from politics, heads the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.