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Virginia Lawmakers Establish More LGBTQ Protections

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This year’s General Assembly session, the second in which Virginia’s legislative body has been under Democratic control, saw further improvements over last year’s already outstanding push for LGBTQ equality.

The Democratic-controlled Virginia General Assembly worked in its second year to establish more protections for LGBTQ people. 

Lawmakers tackled LGBTQ inequity in criminal justice and health care, reforming laws that advocates said were rooted in discrimination and could block access to needed services. An advisory board will be established to continue Virginia’s work with the LGBTQ community. 

Though some key legislation failed, advocates said the state is moving forward.

“Virginia continues to be a safer and more welcoming place for LGBTQ people and their families,” said Vee Lamneck, executive director of Equality Virginia, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ people. “This is the second year in a row that we have seen significant life-changing legislation passed.”

Aging LGBTQ community

House Bill 1805 was introduced by Del. Dawn Adams, D-Richmond, to help ensure “that LGBT older people and people who are older living with HIV don’t fall through the cracks.”

 The bill expands on the federal Older Americans Act and calls on the state’s Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services to prioritize older persons with significant social and economic needs. 

The bill defines economic needs as being at or below the poverty line. Social needs are caused by noneconomic factors such as physical disability, including HIV, or mental disability, the bill states. Social needs can arise from isolation, including isolation related to a history of discrimination. Such factors include language barriers, race, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation which affect an individual’s ability to perform daily tasks or threaten their capacity to live independently.

 “Sometimes having faced lifelong stigma and discrimination, sometimes at the hands of government and other providers, means that these populations have trouble accessing the assistance they need as they grow older,” Adams said. 

Adams said she has experienced discrimination as an LGBTQ individual, and she has witnessed it as a health care provider.

“What I can tell you as a 56-year-old lesbian, is that I am still shrouded in shame,” Adams said during a January committee meeting. “When I would go to the doctor 10 years ago, I would leave in tears.”

Del. Dawn Adams, D-Richmond (Photo via CNS)

Lamneck, who spoke in support of the bill, said there is a trend across the country and in Virginia of LGBTQ older persons “going back into the closet as they age because they are afraid of being mistreated.” Some LGBTQ individuals hide their sexual orientation when entering an assisted living facility, Lamneck said.

“We see LGBT older adults not accessing programs and services like Meals on Wheels,” Lamneck said. “Then Black and Latinx LGBT adults experience even higher marginalization resulting in even lower access to these services than white LGBT older adults.” 

The General Assembly also passed the companion bill, Senate Bill 1316, introduced by Sen. George Barker, D-Alexandria.

Criminal Justice Reform 

Virginia lawmakers passed several criminal justice reform bills that bring state law in more alignment with public policy.

HB 2132 introduced by Del. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, bans the use of a “gay panic defense” in cases where a defendant attacks a person for being a member of the LGBTQ community. The defense has been used in several Virginia cases, most recently in 2011. The defense was also used, albeit unsuccessfully, in the 1998 Matthew Shepard case.

“LGBTQ+ people are being violently harmed and viciously murdered simply because of who we are, and the noxious LGBTQ ‘panic’ defense allows attackers to escape the criminal sentences that would otherwise be imposed on them,” Wes Bizzell, president of the National LGBT Bar Association, stated in a press release.

Virginia is the 12th state to pass legislation that bans this defense, according to the policy organization Movement Advancement Project. The defense is also banned in the District of Columbia.

Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William (Photo via CNS)

SB 1138, sponsored by Sens. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton and Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, repealed the crime of donating blood, organs and tissue by those who have HIV. Donors must be in compliance with the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act. The measure also removes HIV, AIDS, syphilis and hepatitis B from the list of infectious biological substances under the current infected sexual battery law, opting to use the language “sexually transmitted infection.”

The bill sought to reduce the felony charge of infected sexual battery for people who engage in risky sexual activity after testing positive for a sexually transmitted infection. The crime is punishable by a Class 6 felony, which carries a punishment of no more than five years in prison or a $2,500 fine. The Senate voted to lower the Class 6 felony to a Class 1 misdemeanor. The House rejected this and the final bill was passed with the felony penalty intact. 

Organizations such as Equality Virginia and Ending Criminalization of HIV and Overincarceration in Virginia, known as ECHO VA, petitioned Northam to amend the bill and remove the felony penalty.

HIV discriminatory laws have historically been used to single out members of the LGBTQ community since the beginning of the epidemic when the virus was known as the “gay plague,” according to Avert, the national HIV and AIDS research organization. These laws have also resulted in a stigma against those living with HIV, regardless of sexual orientation.

Advisory board

HB 2130, introduced by Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, creates a Virginia LGBTQ + Advisory Board in the executive branch of state government. The executive board will advise the governor on the economic, professional, cultural, educational and governmental links between the commonwealth and the LGBTQ community.

The 26-member board is modeled after the existing Latino Advisory and Asian Advisory boards, Lopez said. The governor will appoint 21 non-legislative citizens to the board; at least 15 of the members shall identify as LGBTQ.

“In just the last decade, Virginians ended marriage inequality, passed legislation that banned anti-LGBTQ discrimination in housing and employment, and won the right to get licenses and IDs with a nonbinary gender marker, but there’s still work to do,” Lopez said to members of the House in January. 

Marriage equality 

House Joint Resolution 582, introduced by Lopez and Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax, repealed outdated language in the state code that was invalid as a result of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Virginia’s current law defines marriage as a union between only one man and one woman. 

Senate Joint Resolution 270 is complementary to HJ 582. The resolution redefines marriage as a fundamental right, rather than a union between only one man and one woman. 

Lawmakers in both chambers crossed party lines to vote for the bills. Lawmakers passed legislation last year that removed the same-sex marriage ban from Virginia’s Constitution. The repeal came six years after same-sex marriage became legally recognized in Virginia and five years after it was legalized across the country.

Failed bills

Several LGBTQ-centric bills were introduced this session that did not make it to the governor’s desk. 

LGBTQ adoption

Del. Mark Levine, D-Alexandria, introduced HB 1932, to keep foster and adoption agencies from refusing to place children in LGBTQ homes because of religious or moral convictions or policies. Agencies who refuse LGBTQ couples are protected from legal consequences under the state’s “conscience clause.” This law applies to private and state-licensed agencies. 

Del. Mark Levine, D-Alexandria (Photo via CNS)

Virginia funds foster and adoption agencies despite the conscience clause. A similar law exists in other states where federally-funded agencies can deny same-sex couples and non-Christian couples. Levine said the state should not be required to fund these organizations and that if an agency discriminates, they should “do it on their own dime.”

Levine said the current law harms LGBTQ kids and sometimes leaves them placed in homophobic environments.

“It basically tells kids ‘you’re unwanted, you’re unloved, you’re not good enough,’” Levine said. “It just consigns people to this hierarchy of ‘straight is better than gay’ whether it’s the kids or the parents.” 

Adoption agencies are not required to note on their website or any other forum whether they do not place children with certain families. 

“If you’re actively practicing religious discrimination, list it,” Levine said. “At least tell the public what you do.” 

The House narrowly passed the bill, but it was left in a Senate subcommittee. 

Bias-based profiling

Levine’s bill to expand the definition of bias-based profiling to include sexual orientation and gender identity also narrowly passed the House but faltered in the Senate. Bias-based profiling is when a police officer takes action solely based on an individual’s real or perceived race, age, ethnicity or gender.

 HB 1948 required officers to report certain behavior among officers. Any officer who discriminated against or witnessed another officer discriminate against any individual without reporting it would be subjected to disciplinary action. The original bill also required on-duty law enforcement officers who witnessed a person suffering from a bodily injury or life-threatening condition to provide immediate aid.

Law enforcement testified against the bill during a Senate committee meeting. Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, argued that the original statute, introduced and passed during the 2020 special session, addressed the issue of “driving while Black.” Petersen said he was unaware of an issue of “driving while gay.”

Almost 30 percent of transgender people reported being harassed by police, according to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Transgender people of color are six times more likely to experience physical violence from the police compared to white cisgender survivors and victims, according to a 2013 study by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. 

Hate crime expansion

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, introduced SB 1203, to expand the definition of hate crimes to include crimes against people based on perception. 

Lamneck said expanding the categories within the hate crimes law will ensure diverse members of the community are protected and that those who commit violent crimes are held appropriately responsible. 

Opponents of the bill said it was too broad and could be misused. The bill died in committee when four Democratic legislators crossed party lines to vote against it. 

Hashmi and Levine will consider reintroducing their failed bills next session.

Lamneck said Equality Virginia will host an event this spring or summer to hear from the community about legislative priorities for the next session. 

Written by Cierra Parks, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Man holding pride flag; photo by Brianna Swank from Pexels.

Virginia Asian Communities, Lawmakers React To Rise In Targeted Violence

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In the wake of the Atlanta shooting and other hate-fueled attacks against Asian Americans, Central Virginia’s Asian American community are coming together to stand up against violence and racist stereotypes.

White signs reading “End Violence Against Asians” and “Stop Asian Hate” illuminated against candle flames outside the Richmond Korean Presbyterian Church. 

More than 60 people gathered recently in Southside Richmond for the candlelight vigil to commemorate the Atlanta shooting victims and to call attention to recent anti-Asian violence.

“We did not want to be here, but we are here because of the hate,” said Mahmud Chowdhury, chairman of the Asian American Society of Central Virginia. “Because of madness in some people’s hearts and because of racism.”

The vigil was one of numerous events across Virginia this past March as communities, advocates and lawmakers came together in response to the murder of eight people in Atlanta. Six of the eight victims were Asian women. Police charged 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, who is white, with eight counts of murder. 

A “Stop the Hate” rally was held in Richmond’s West End three days after the vigil. Community leaders and dignitaries, such as Attorney General Mark Herring and State Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, spoke at the rally.

May Nivar, who is Asian American and chair of Gov. Ralph Northam’s Asian Advisory Board, said she attended the vigil to show support for her community. 

“It’s important that we all stand together and stand not only together amongst our own community but also with other marginalized communities,” Nivar said. 

Nivar also is a founding member and chair of the Asian & Latino Solidarity Alliance of Central Virginia and member of the Richmond chapter of Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities. She said fundamental local and federal legislative changes are needed to address anti-Asian discrimination. 

“These vigils, they help bring the community together when we’re hurting,” Nivar said. “However, the real change has to come at the root cause. And that’s racism.” 

These changes, Nivar said, include anti-racist policies in government and education, such as teaching the history of minorities. She said white supremacy plays a part in the absence of teaching the history of marginalized communities in schools, such as African American and Asian American history. 

Nivar said the Asian American and Pacific Islander community also needs to internally reflect on its part in addressing systemic racism and striving for substantial changes.

“We need to work with ourselves,” Nivar said. “There’s a lot of anti-Blackness in our community. There’s a lot of colorism in our community. There’s a lot of layers to unpack.”

State legislators recently formed a caucus to advocate legislation for Asian American and Pacific Islanders in Virginia, which the founding members said was partly a response to recent anti-Asian hate crimes.

Del. Kathy K.L. Tran, D-Springfield, said the movement to combat Asian hate is part of a larger racial and economic justice movement. 

The caucus plans to work alongside the Virginia Legislative Black and Virginia Latino caucuses to push out legislation to “achieve our common goals of a more equitable future for Virginians.”

Tran was overcome with emotions as she reflected on the surge of violence against Asian Americans in the past months.

“It’s as if we have been so othered, that we’re at the point that we’re dehumanized,” Tran said, “and that you could be cruel against us. You can be a bully against us, because nobody’s going to stand up to help us.”

Days after Tran’s remarks, a Filipina American woman was brutally attacked in New York City during the day. No one intervened.

Tran’s family came to the United States as refugees from Vietnam. Her family dealt with discrimination and microaggressions when they moved to the U.S, she said.

“I’m thinking about my own experience and unpacking that,” Tran said. “That’s hard. It’s just a lot of trauma.”

Candlelight vigil at the Richmond Korean Presbyterian Church on March 20. Photo by David Tran.

Del. Kelly K. Convirs-Fowler, D-Virginia Beach, said the Asian American community has a long history of enduring xenophobia and racism. Convirs-Fowler, who is of Filipino descent, added the Asian American and Pacific Islander community will not be a scapegoat. She rejected the notion that the group is a model minority, a stereotype that paints Asian Americans as hardworking and economically successful compared to other ethnic minorities. She said the caucus formation “symbolizes a shift” in Virginia’s Asian American community.

The caucus members do not have a firm list of policy agendas, but they will have a virtual listening tour in April to gauge issues and concerns in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. They will virtually meet with the public in Northern and Central Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Del. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Ashburn, said the caucus will incorporate the feedback into its policy agenda, which it plans to release in May, coinciding with Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The caucus will pursue specific legislation during the 2022 General Assembly session.

Del. Mark L. Keam, D-Fairfax, said he wants to improve language access at government services for Asian Americans and others who do not speak English. He said non-English speakers are not getting vital information about COVID-19 vaccine distribution or unemployment insurance claims due to the lack of language assistance.

While Atlanta law enforcement have not declared the killings a hate crime, many Asian Americans believe the shootings are another example of the spike in anti-Asian violence since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Advocates and lawmakers have linked the hate crimes to rhetoric blaming the Asian community for COVID-19. Many attribute the origin to former President Donald Trump’s usage of the terms “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu” to describe COVID-19.

“The past administration in the White House frequently sought to demean and dehumanize,” the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and didn’t respond to growing attacks, said Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield.

Hashmi introduced a bill this legislative session to expand the definition of hate crimes to include attacks based on the perception of a person’s identity. The bill failed to advance.

Tran said anti-Asian hate crimes may go unreported because most people are afraid to come forward. 

“They might not have the language abilities, the trust of law enforcement, and they just don’t know how to report,” Tran said. 

Subramanyam said he received calls and emails from Asian Americans, especially South Asian Americans, reporting hate incidents to his office because they feel uncomfortable reporting to law enforcement. 

There were 215 reported victims of anti-Asian hate crimes in 2019, according to an FBI hate crime statistics report. Anti-Asian hate crimes increased nearly 150 percent from 2019 to 2020 in 16 major U.S. cities, according to a Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism report.

Almost 50 hate incidents against Asian Americans occurred in Virginia since March 2020, according to a report by STOP AAPI Hate, a group that tracks hate incidents against Asian Americans. The organization uses the term hate incident to account for incidents motivated by bias that might not be legally defined as a crime, such as racist slurs. 

Nearly 3,800 hate incidents nationwide were reported to the organization since the pandemic. Virginia was one of the top 18 states with the most reported incidents, joining Maryland and the District of Columbia. 

Reported hate incidents in Virginia were much lower than incidents reported in California, New York and Washington, which accounted for a majority of incidents. The group received almost 1,700 hate incident reports in California. 

The majority of individuals reported verbal harassment, followed by shunning and physical assault. Chinese is the largest ethnicity group to report hate, followed by Koreans, Vietnamese and Filipinos. Women reported more than twice as much anti-Asian discrimination than men, according to the report.

There is a long legacy of anti-Asian racism in the U.S. that is often intertwined with misogyny, experts said. One of the earliest acts of anti-Asian sentiment was the 1871 Chinese massacre in Los Angeles that killed 19 Chinese immigrants, said Sylvia Chong, associate professor of American studies at the University of Virginia.

The Page Act of 1875 denied Chinese women entry into the U.S. due to “lewd and immoral purposes” because “they were seen as a sort of a threat to immigration, but also, they were characterized as not being virtuous,” said Shilpa Davé, associate dean and assistant professor of media studies at UVA. 

Anti-Asian discrimination seeped into laws, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. It was the first federal law to bar a specific ethnic group from coming into the country.

Chong and Davé said the U.S. military presence and imperialism in Asia during the 20th century escalated the sexualization of Asian women. Chong said there was “persistent encouragement and use” of the local population to satisfy the military’s sexual needs.

“This introduces to American troops… the notion that Asian women in particular are in the position of sexual servitude,” Chong said. “So this follows people home.” 

This narrative carried over and persisted in American popular culture, in numerous films and musicals, such as Miss Saigon, portraying Asian women as sex objects, Davé said. It created the stereotype of Asian women being “sexually promiscuous or self-sacrificing” which became ingrained in American society.

The Atlanta shootings and recent violence underscore the intersectionality of gender, class and immigration status in anti-Asian racism, Chong said. While there is no indication the Atlanta shooting victims engaged in sex work, she said, Asian massage parlor workers are vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Low-wage laborers, such as massage spa workers, are often exploited and demonized, she said. There is also a narrative that they need to be “saved from their lives,” which is harmful, according to Chong.

“They need to be given the protection to live their lives as others do,” Chong said. “Free from coercion, law enforcement coercion, as well as the random violence, societal violence. This is what any person in society wants.”

Written by David Tran, Capital News Service. Top Photo: A crowd of people at Richmond Korean Presbyterian Church during a candlelight vigil on March 20 to honor the Atlanta shootings victims. Virginian politicians, such as U.S Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg and State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi attended and spoke at the event. Photo by David Tran.

Virginia Senate Committee Rejects Hate Crime Expansion Bill

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Sen. Ghazala Hashmi’s bill to expand hate crimes to include crimes based on perception — which would have had the effect of protecting gender expression, not covered under current hate crime statutes — failed in the Virginia state Senate after backlash from both parties.

Legislators attempted to pass a bill that would expand the definition of a hate crime to include crimes against people based on perception, but opponents said the bill was too broad and could be misused. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill by for the year late last month. Four Democrats strayed from party lines to vote against the bill after much debate.

The current statute defines hate crime victims as those who are maliciously targeted based on race, religion, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. Legislators passed the legislation last year during the General Assembly session.

Senate Bill 1203, proposed by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, aimed to ensure that someone who maliciously attacks a person based on their perception of that person’s membership or association within one of the aforementioned groups is held to the same standard as someone who attacks a person they know is a member of one of the groups. Hashmi’s bill also added color, national origin, and gender expression to the list of protected classes.

Hashmi cited an incident during Black Lives Matter protests last summer in which Harry H. Rogers, an avowed high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, drove his truck into a crowd of protesters. Henrico’s Commonwealth Attorney Shannon Taylor said her client, who was hit, was not protected under current hate crime legislation because he is white. She said Rogers drove his truck with the intention to disrupt the protests.

“Our current law looks more at the victim and the victim’s characteristics than it does looking at the offender and his intent,” Taylor said.

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi. Taken from her campaign’s website.

Vee Lamneck, the executive director of Equality Virginia, said hate crimes are more than acts of violence. Such crimes are committed with the intention of inciting fear and dehumanizing groups, Lamneck said.

“Individuals with intersecting identities, especially Black, Latinx and Indigenous LGBTQ people are exposed to higher rates of violence,” Lamneck said. “Redefinition of the categories in this bill will help to further ensure that all diverse members of our communities are sufficiently protected by the law from hate crime violence and that perpetrators of such violence are held appropriately responsible.”

Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, said during the committee hearing that the bill was a massive expansion of the current statute. Petersen said the proposed changes would be “pretty far off-field from the original purpose.”

Opponents, including the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the bill was too broad and could allow for the exploitation of who was a hate crime victim. Legislators pondered over if this meant a person of color could be charged with a hate crime for assaulting a white person and postulated several scenarios of how the bill could be misused.

Emanuel Harris, a representative for the Black Coalition for Change, called the questioning of the protection of white supremacists puzzling, offensive, and laughable.

“The history has shown that the Black community is the one being intimidated, not the other way around,” Harris said during the public comment portion of the meeting. Harris said the original statute needs to be expanded.

“I am offended that folks brought this and then clouded, or wrapped it up in BLM, and suggested that if we vote against it, somehow we’re not supporting the prosecution of hate crimes, because that is not what we are doing,” said Sen. Joseph Morrissey, D-Richmond. “This bill is offensive in so many different ways.” 

Morrissey was a co-patron for the hate crime legislation that passed in 2020.

Hashmi said Morrissey was approaching the bill from a position of privilege, at which point Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment, R-Williamsburg, interrupted with an “Oh my God.” Hashmi continued and said the bill addressed race as well as oppressed and terrorized religious and LGBTQ communities. 

Sen. Joe Morrissey questioned several aspects of the bill and said that he found the bill “offensive in so many different ways.” Photo via VCU-CNS

The Anti-Defamation League helped with the bill’s language. Meredith R. Weisel, representing the ADL, said the bill is important because it would help ensure that offenders who are mistaken about the victim’s protected characteristics can still be held accountable for a hate crime under the law.

Brittany Whitley, chief of external affairs and policy with the Office of the Attorney General, spoke in support of the bill along with other citizens and attorneys.

Hashmi said in an email that she hopes to refine the language in the bill and will consider reintroducing it next year. 

“Addressing hate crimes is important for the well-being of our communities: hate crimes are designed to harm and inflict pain on not just the targeted individual(s) but also to intimidate and terrorize entire groups of people,” she said.

Written by Cierra Parks, Capital News Service. Top Photo: June march for Black Lives Matter on Monument Avenue. Photo by Ada Romano.