The First Five Legislative Proposals Are…
Today legislators were allowed to begin filing bills for the 2020 General Assembly Session, set to convene on January 8, 2019. If the first few bills dropped are any indication of what’s in store for Virginia, brace yourselves now.
Leading up to the pivotal November elections we explained what the agenda would look like if pro-abortion and big government legislators gained control of the House of Delegates and Senate, and now that agenda is becoming a reality. And by these first few bills put forward, the new majority, led by infanticide-pushing Ralph Northam, has made its statement about its top priorities for Virginia:
HJ 1 – Passage of the so-called “Equal Rights Amendment”
HB 1 – Absentee voting for any reason in any election
HB 2 – Restrictions on firearm purchases by law-abiding citizens
HB 3 – Enshrining “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as specially protected classes in housing laws
HB 4 – Legalizing full-scale casino gaming across Virginia
While there will be many more radical bills introduced this session, the initial message being sent by the ideological left is loud and clear: “Encourage election fraud and incentivize year-round campaigning, and make it more difficult for law-abiding Virginians to protect themselves and their families, to peaceably live out their faith, and avoid the many pitfalls and perils of the exploitive gambling industry.
Not surprisingly, the Left continues to try to elevate sexual orientation and gender identity to a protected class. House Bill 3 is just the first of what we anticipate to be many attempts to compel people to celebrate this lifestyle despite their deeply held personal or faith convictions.
Of course the crown jewel for the ideological left this session will be passing the so-called Equal Rights Amendment, which threatens to enshrine abortion into the U.S. Constitution. With a new majority in power in the legislature, pro-abortion groups are no longer concerned about hiding the ERA’s true objective – a constitutional right to abortion. In fact, according to the abortion rights advocacy group NARAL just this past week, ratification of the ERA “would reinforce the constitutional right to abortion by clarifying that the sexes have equal rights, which would require judges to strike down anti-abortion laws because they violate both the constitutional right to privacy and sexual equality.”
These early legislative filings are a signal to Virginians who value the sanctity of life, religious liberty, and limited government that the new majority has started its march towards a “New Virginia” in which your rights and your values no longer matter. It'll be interesting to see if the media will accuse the Left of focusing too much attention on social issues rather than other important policies like transportation and education, just as they’ve done in the past when conservatives put forward pro-life measures.
But we can’t afford to back down now. Because, as Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Those in elected office will need to hear from you now more than ever. Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you up to speed on what’s happening and what you can do about it.
