This Happened Today. Will You Be Virginia’s Next Victim?
Today marks one of the darkest days in the history of our Commonwealth, the very place where 401 years ago, a new nation conceived for liberty – specifically, religious liberty and the rights of conscience – began. Thankfully, many of the legal protections our forbearers set in place for religious freedom so many years ago are still with us today embedded within our state and federal constitutions and various other laws, including Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.
After what happened today, these laws are about to be put to the test like never before.
We’ve been telling you about the various “SOGI” bills making their way through the process this year and explaining some of their far-reaching implications in forcing conscientious people to choose between violating their duties to God or be punished by the state for choosing not to. Today, both the House and Senate – each with bi-partisan votes – passed one of the worst forms of these anti-faith anti-freedom laws, as well as several others.
The House passed HB 1663 (D-Sickles) 59-35, and the Senate passed the identical language, SB 868 (D-Ebbin), 30-9. These omnibus SOGI bills inject the flawed, fluid, and totally subjective notions of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” into, among other things, private employment decisions, including the management of their day-to-day operations, and “public accommodations,” which is defined so broadly that it even appears to include most churches! (Read our recent blog on this for more details.)
By far one of the biggest reasons why these bills are so bad is their insertion of what could be described as "Mark Herring’s New Seek-And-Destroy Power." The bills create new grievance hearings, new civil causes of action for enforcement by individuals and local and state Human Rights Commissions. And most notably, it creates new powers for the Attorney General to investigate claims and initiate civil suits, including new provisions for hefty fines.
Fines for such violations are up to $50,000 for the first offense, and then up to $100,000 for each subsequent offense! And the judge can order the offender to pay the complainant's legal costs and attorneys fees, AND award UNLIMITED amounts for both compensatory and punitive damages! This will force small businesses and non-profits out of business!
The House also passed HB 696 (D-Roem) 75-24, which gives a green light for every locality in Virginia to also pass local policies to prohibit discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, credit, and education on the basis of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
Finally, yesterday, the House passed HB 1049 (D-Levine) 60-38, which among many other things, targets all religious entities that partner with the state to provide vital community services such as adoption and foster care agencies. Despite defeating another bill from Del. Levine last week that directly targeted faith-based adoption agencies for closure (Read about it here), this bill will likely have the same effect – only for every faith-based entity that contracts with the state.
As already evident from other states where SOGI laws have been passed, these policies promise to be a truly destructive weapon used to target people of sincere faith. Now it is all but certain that Virginians will begin to experience the inevitable fallout in the coming months and years, including the harm to many vulnerable souls - including young children - who will sadly fall prey to the harmful ideologies of the sexual revolution.
We have so many people to pray for in the days ahead, because as my friend John Stonestreet says: Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.
In the meantime, please check the votes for each bill to see how your legislators voted and let them hear from you about it. Far too many of them got these wrong, and they need to be held accountable!
And in case you need a reminder of who the targets of these policies can be, watch this clip about Jack Phillips:
