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After election wipeout, Va. House Republicans avoid hot-button bills on abortion, LGBT rights
After election wipeout, Va. House Republicans avoid hot-button bills on abortion, LGBT rights
By GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch 1 hr ago
In addition to more than a dozen departed Republicans, something else seems to have gone missing this year from the Virginia House of Delegates: conservative bills on contentious social issues like abortion and LGBT rights. ... More than 1,300 pieces of legislation have been filed in the House so far, but there are no bathroom bills, no bills to protect opposition to gay marriage and no bills to restrict access to abortion.
The filing deadline isn’t until Friday, but many of the Republican lawmakers who attached their names to headline-grabbing bills in past sessions say they won’t push the legislation again in the 2018 session. Several GOP legislators attributed the shift directly to the election last year, when Democrats easily kept control of the Executive Mansion and picked up an additional 15 seats in the House.
“I just think people see the new reality in which we exist,” said House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, who is not planning to file legislation similar to his 2016 religious freedom bill that LGBT rights advocates called a “license to discriminate.” ... With Republicans now holding a slim, 51-49 majority, a few GOP defections could have doomed social-issue bills that passed the House in previous years. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat who was sworn into office Saturday, has pledged to veto such bills should they make it to his desk.
....
Former Del. Bob Marshall, a Prince William Republican who lost his seat last year, was behind many of the most socially conservative bills introduced during his two decades in the House. ... Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, a former journalist who made history by becoming the first transgender person elected to the state legislature, said she announced her candidacy just as Marshall introduced a North Carolina-style bill to block transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. A year later, she said, “those bills are not here.” ... “But I am,” Roem said.
....
gmoomaw@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6839
Twitter: @gmoomaw
By GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch 1 hr ago
In addition to more than a dozen departed Republicans, something else seems to have gone missing this year from the Virginia House of Delegates: conservative bills on contentious social issues like abortion and LGBT rights. ... More than 1,300 pieces of legislation have been filed in the House so far, but there are no bathroom bills, no bills to protect opposition to gay marriage and no bills to restrict access to abortion.
The filing deadline isn’t until Friday, but many of the Republican lawmakers who attached their names to headline-grabbing bills in past sessions say they won’t push the legislation again in the 2018 session. Several GOP legislators attributed the shift directly to the election last year, when Democrats easily kept control of the Executive Mansion and picked up an additional 15 seats in the House.
“I just think people see the new reality in which we exist,” said House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, who is not planning to file legislation similar to his 2016 religious freedom bill that LGBT rights advocates called a “license to discriminate.” ... With Republicans now holding a slim, 51-49 majority, a few GOP defections could have doomed social-issue bills that passed the House in previous years. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat who was sworn into office Saturday, has pledged to veto such bills should they make it to his desk.
....
Former Del. Bob Marshall, a Prince William Republican who lost his seat last year, was behind many of the most socially conservative bills introduced during his two decades in the House. ... Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, a former journalist who made history by becoming the first transgender person elected to the state legislature, said she announced her candidacy just as Marshall introduced a North Carolina-style bill to block transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. A year later, she said, “those bills are not here.” ... “But I am,” Roem said.
....
gmoomaw@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6839
Twitter: @gmoomaw
