Virginia House passes Campus KKK Protection Act

C. Todd Gilbert

It's not called that, of course; the bill's name is HB1617, sponsored by Del. C. Todd Gilbert (R-Page, Rockingham, Shenandoah and Warren counties).

     But what it does is exactly what you read in the headline. From John Riley in Poliglot:

...it prohibits public institutions of higher education from "discriminating against a student organization or group on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical or other content of the organization or group’s speech."
     It also allows religious or political student organizations to determine whom they may admit as members "in furtherance of the organization’s religious or political mission."

Here are the 80 Virginia lawmakers who voted for it:

Albo, Anderson, BaCote, Bell, Richard P., Bell, Robert B., Bulova, Byron, Cline, Cole, Comstock, Cosgrove, Cox, J.A., Cox, M.K., Crockett-Stark, Dance, Edmunds, Fariss, Farrell, Filler-Corn, Garrett, Gilbert, Greason, Habeeb, Head, Helsel, Herring, Hodges, Hugo, Iaquinto, Ingram, Joannou, Johnson, Jones, Keam, Kilgore, Knight, Landes, LeMunyon, Lewis, Lingamfelter, Loupassi, Marshall, D.W., Marshall, R.G., Massie, May, Merricks, Miller, Minchew, Morefield, Morris, O'Bannon, O'Quinn, Orrock, Peace, Pogge, Poindexter, Purkey, Putney, Ramadan, Ransone, Robinson, Rush, Rust, Scott, E.T., Sherwood, Spruill, Stolle, Tata, Tyler, Villanueva, Ware, O., Ware, R.L., Watson, Watts, Webert, Wilt, Wright, Yancey, Yost, Mr. Speaker--80

     Kevin Clay, a spokesman for Equality Virginia, the commonwealth's major LGBT-rights organization, said Equality Virginia opposes the bill, which he says could potentially allow student groups at publicly funded universities to discriminate against LGBT individuals if they cite religious beliefs or political philosophies.
     "Our concern with the bill is it allows discrimination with publicly accessible funds," Clay said.
     He further noted that universities, even if they have a nondiscrimination policy, are unable to deny funding or resources to groups that openly discriminate, because under current Virginia law, campus nondiscrimination policies are not legally binding. 

Zack Ford of ThinkProgress explains the significance of the Virginia House of Delegates' assault on diversity and fairness:

On most college campuses, student organizations must maintain a constitution that conforms to the university’s procedures, including its nondiscrimination policies...
     Nondiscrimination policies have become a source of contention for conservative Christian student groups, like at Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University and New York’s University of Buffalo, who wish to exclude gay students from membership.
     In the 2010 case Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly answered this question in favor of nondiscrimination policies, ruling that “all-comers” policies are viewpoint neutral, and thus are no more unfair to Christian groups than any other student groups.
     Conservatives have argued, however that nondiscrimination policies allow for “hostile takeovers“ — in which students with opposing views infiltrate and assume power in the organization — but there’s no evidence to suggest that this is plausible, let alone that it... (read more.)