Days after the state’s attorney general told the institutions that they couldn’t ban discrimination against gay people, the governor said they could. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s announcement came amid growing student protests about the attorney general’s policy and strong statements by some college officials that suggested they would ignore the attorney general. Both McDonnell and the attorney general, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, are Republicans. . . He issued an “executive directive” in which he said: “The Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits discrimination without a rational basis against any class of persons. Discrimination based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation or parental status violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Therefore, discrimination against enumerated classes of persons set forth in the Virginia Human Rights Act or discrimination against any class of persons without a rational basis is prohibited.”

“Equal Protection Clause”? Can same-sex marriage in Virginia be far behind?

Students at many of Virginia’s public colleges and universities began planning Monday to fight the declartion of Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II last week that that the institutions lack the authority to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation, while Gov. Robert McDonnell signaled that he might take a different tack, The Washington Post reported. Groups opposing the attorney general’s letter cropped up across Facebook, business leaders expressed qualms that the stance would hurt the state’s ability to attract students and workers, and the governor said in an interview that he’d consider signing state legislation extending legal protections on the basis of sexual orientation if the legislature were to pass one.

The Post article can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030804999.html