Gay Agenda Twists AG Cuccinelli's Advice

“Reprehensible,”

“Mean-spirited.”

“No charity or sense of justice.”

And the beat goes on.

Apparently Attorney General Cuccinelli has legalized discrimination against gays. Hundreds of protesting students, the thousands on Facebook and the righteous folks at the Washington Post editorial pages can’t all be wrong.

Wait a minute! The AG doesn’t make laws or legalize anything. His job is to render opinion and advice to the government and government agencies on constitutional issues and on the law as it is. This he did in responding to a query by a confidential client. His hot-button opinion:

“It is my advice that the law and the public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or a university from including ‘sexual orientation’...or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy, absent specific authorization from the General Assembly.”

Cuccinelli’s advice is that universities cannot go beyond what the General Assembly considers as groups for whom state non-discrimination laws apply. Maybe one can argue that in the same sense that a state’s law can be more restrictive than the provisions of a federal law, a university’s regulations can also be more restrictive than the provisions of state law. No, because as public institutions, or “arms of the state,” universities are subject to the General Assembly and are limited to the powers granted in the Code of Virginia. The fifty states, on the other hand, are not arms of the federal government. They have all powers, which are not specifically enumerated for the feds, guaranteed in the 10th Amendment of the U.S Constitution.

If the gay community is worried that, because of the AG’s opinion, they won’t be hired, promoted, given bonuses, refused admissions to Virginia’s public schools, they have nothing to fear. No one has ever been denied admission to a Virginia university because of sex orientation. Discrimination that interferes with voting rights, equality of opportunity in education, employment, and housing is unlawful for everyone under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The gay activists aren’t worried about these rights. Rather, their goal is to force privileges in the public and private sectors that are not constitutional rights and that oftentimes deny the rights of others, especially religious groups.

Take the Catholic Charities of D.C. for instance. This organization cannot renew its contract with D.C’s Child and Family Services Agency for foster care because the D.C. City Council’s law recognizing same-sex “marriage” requires religious entities that serve the public to provide services to homosexual couples. Catholic Charities of Boston was forced to close its adoption services in 2006 because it would not place children with homosexual couples as required by state law. The diversity fascists, once again, have screwed the needy.

Some states, like Florida, in satisfying the homosexual agenda, have transgender bathroom rules and are debating such bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools. Here we find the so-called homosexual rights stomping on common sense. Where is privacy for the vast majority of people who need separate facilities? What about the danger that “transgender” public restrooms pose? Everyone knows that bad things can happen when a man enters a woman’s locker room or restroom.

There is probably no example more visible than the attacks on the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The BSA had been sued to allow gay scoutmasters despite the oath that leaders be morally straight. The Scouts lost the case but on appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the BSA, reasoning that as a private group they had the right to bar people from leadership whose behavior was incompatible with the group’s belief. In other words, the Court upheld their First Amendment right to assemble, and by extension, the right to associate.

If anything, the effect of Cuccinelli’s advice will be to prevent discrimination from occurring.

After Cuccinelli’s letter became public, the student activists responded with a picture of Cuccinelli with the College of William and Mary seal over his mouth—the symbolic gag order. Let me explain their reasoning: Shut up! “Shut up” is the central argument behind the gay movement’s program. Conservatives argue forcefully against policies that violate the average citizen’s constitutional rights. Activists want to explain their view: Shut up!

The Left has worked hard to make “shut up” a legitimate philosophical argument. It is the quintessence of politically correct parlance and university speech codes. “Say it our way or...shut up.” Remember the recent William and Mary anonymous bias reporting system created by former university president Gene Nichol?

The gay movement has been using the shut-up argument for a while since it has become clear that their other arguments for “equality” have failed. When conservatives point out the potential problems to individual rights that their agenda will cause, they are “intolerant,” “homophobic,” “fascist,” "Hitler,” all colorful if unoriginal ways to say, “shut up.”

The law is the law and a republic stands on the rule of it. I hope Attorney General Cuccinelli doesn’t shut up.