Dec 12, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

Gay rights advocates in Virginia are concerned that a Republican with a distinctly anti-gay record could be the state’s next governor.

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the only Republican candidate to file for the governor’s race before last month’s deadline, is already the party’s presumptive nominee.

Tom Osborne, treasurer of the Virginia Partisans, a gay Democratic group, called McDonnell “one of the most outspoken, homophobic elected officials in the state” and said he’s been the gay community’s “enemy at every opportunity.”

In 2006, McDonnell issued an opinion that concluded Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s (D) executive order prohibiting discrimination against gays in the state and public workforce was unconstitutional.

McDonnell, whose campaign declined an interview request for this article, also cast anti-gay votes while representing Virginia Beach, Va., in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1992 to 2005. In 2006, he voted in favor of the Marshall-Newman Amendment when it came to the General Assembly. The measure, approved in 2006, made a prohibition on same-sex marriage and civil unions part of the Virginia Constitution. It has been criticized for its potential to restrict rights for other non-married couples.

McDonnell’s political action committee also donated $1,000 in support of the campaign geared toward passing the Marshall-Newman Amendment.

Additionally, McDonnell in 2004 voted in favor of the Marriage Affirmation Act, which prohibits Virginia law from recognizing out-of-state civil unions. In 2005, McDonnell voted in favor of a bill that would have prohibited adoption by gay Virginia residents. In 2004 and 2005, he voted against bills that would have allowed insurance companies to provide coverage to the partners of their gay customers.

Dyana Mason, executive director of Equality Virginia, a non-partisan gay advocacy group, said McDonnell “certainly isn’t somebody that generally embraces our policy priorities — in terms of non-discrimination or civil unions and marriage equality.”

But David Lampo, vice president of the Virginia Log Cabin Republicans, said while McDonnell’s “voting history has not been that great,” the key test will be how he responds to pro-gay legislation that comes up in the General Assembly next year.

“He can be helpful simply by saying he supports or doesn’t oppose a particular bill, so I think that’s what we’re hoping that he’ll do,” Lampo said.

While he opposed Kaine’s non-discrimination order in 2006, McDonnell later that year issued an opinion stating that the Marshall-Newman Amendment would not interfere with contracts, wills, medical directives and other agreements in the state and “will not modify the application and enforcement of Virginia’s domestic violence laws.”

McDonnell’s opinion empowered municipalities in Northern Virginia to issue directives requiring officials to treat domestic violence calls for gay couples in the same way that such cases are handled for straight couples.

McDonnell also made an effort to keep anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church protesters out of Virginia.
After the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, when 33 people were killed, Fred Phelps, head of the church, announced that his congregation would picket the funerals of victims. McDonnell sent a warning to Phelps, stating that Virginia law allowed police to arrest protesters if they interrupted funerals. Phelps’ congregation did not appear at the funerals.

Mason said she wrote a letter to McDonnell after those events, thanking the attorney general for issuing the warning.

Challengers prepping

A number of Democrats have lined up to face off against McDonnell in the fight for the governor’s mansion.

Del. Brian Moran (D-Alexandria) has filed the paperwork to join the race, as has Terry McAuliffe, a former head of the Democratic National Committee. State Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath County), who narrowly lost against McDonnell in the race for attorney general in 2005, also is in the running.

Osborne said any of the Democratic candidates would be “infinitely better” on gay issues than McDonnell, although he noted that Moran has a consistently pro-gay voting record in the General Assembly compared to other candidates.

He called McAuliffe “a wild card” and noted that Deeds voted in favor of the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2005 and 2006.

McDonnell has “a strong chance” of being elected governor, Osborne said, noting that Virginia often goes in “the opposite direction of the country in the first election after a major presidential race.”

After the country put Republican Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980, Virginia elected Democrat Chuck Robb as governor in 1982. And after Democrat Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency in 1992, Republican George Allen was elected governor in 1994.

Osborne said if McDonnell is elected, it’s unlikely that any Virginia gay group — Democratic, Republican or non-partisan — would have access to the governor.

But Mason said Equality Virginia would work with whichever candidate ...