(VOX) – Virginia is just one signature away from taking a historic step to ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination. On Thursday, the Virginia House of Delegates approved a landmark bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes in areas like housing, employment, and public accommodation.
The legislation — which passed by a decisive 16-vote margin — was patterned after the Equality Act, a nationwide LGBTQ civil rights bill that passed the US House of Representatives for the first time in 2019. After the bill sailed through the state senate earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam expressed his support for the measure and is expected to soon sign it into law.
The milestone is a long time coming for Virginia state senator Adam Ebbin. He has been pushing for statewide LGBTQ nondiscrimination for nearly 30 years: first, as an LGBTQ advocate lobbying at the state capitol and then as the state’s first out as gay lawmaker. Ebbin believes the Democratic gains in the 2019 election — in which the party flipped both houses of the legislature blue for the first time since 1994 — helped set the stage for the bill’s passage. FULL REPORT
