Virginia campus organizations ask Gov. Bob McDonnell to reject discriminatory bill

After ‘slipping’ through the General Assembly, student campus organizations are asking Gov. Bob McDonnell to forgo his signature on legislation that these organizations argue would give “campus organizations the right to discriminate.”[1]

The legislation in question was sponsored by Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (Harrisonburg) and Del. C. Todd Gilbert (Shenandoah). The bill passed easily in the House (shocker!) and narrowly in Virginia’s Senate.

The legislation takes aim at nondiscrimination policies that are present among many of Virginia’s student organizations by giving political or religious student organizations at public institutions “the right to define their doctrines and limit membership to students committed to their missions.”

According to the president of the University of Mary Washington Student Government Association, Jeremy Thompson, “It’s [the bill that Thompson has requested Gov. Bob McDonnell reject] very vague and ambiguous and contrary to our beliefs as a university.” The bill “would pretty much make our policy of inclusion null and void. It goes against a lot of what our university stands for.”[2]

Indeed, for legislators who tout the virtues of individual liberty and the like, this Republican-sponsored and heavily Republican-favored bill unequivocally sets the stage for legal discrimination. The last time I checked, discrimination is not a way of enhancing individual liberty.

The ACLU agrees, seeing the bill as a means of overriding a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a university’s right to require student organizations to abide by nondiscrimination policies.[3]

To be fair, I understand the reasoning behind the bill in the minds of its Republican Party sponsors: how do you prove that an individual who signs up for Organization A is truly committed to its mission? While this is a good question and one that warrants further discussion, setting up discriminatory barricades isn’t the right answer. Indeed, allowing for legal discrimination will undoubtedly lead to even more hard-to-answer questions while limiting the ability of certain groups of Virginians to join organizations they may very well be committed to.

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[1] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/students-question-intent-of-campus-bill/article_342007a0-e80f-57c7-b292-9ba840036423.html

[2] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/students-question-intent-of-campus-bill/article_342007a0-e80f-57c7-b292-9ba840036423.html

[3] http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/students-question-intent-of-campus-bill/article_342007a0-e80f-57c7-b292-9ba840036423.html