Keeping pressure on state leaders over what they see as Virginia’s weak anti-bias protections, gay-rights group Equality Virginia is calling on college and university leadership to join their push for a change in state law.

The four-star Army general who is managing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan says “the time has come” for the military to rethink its policy toward gays.

Summoning the lyric of an old gospel song, state Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, this evening urged Gov. Bob McDonnell to “go the last mile of the way” and send the General Assembly a bill that codifies sexual orientation as part of the state’s anti-discrimination policy. There is still time, he said, for the legislature to act before its adjournment, scheduled for Saturday.

Senate Republican Floor Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. of James City says maneuver is no longer needed in wake of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s decree yesterday overruling attorney general.

The protest began with the Pledge of Allegiance, but the emphasis was on “justice for all.“ More than 1,000 people rallied at Virginia Commonwealth University yesterday against an attempt by the state attorney general to negate anti-discrimination policies that protect gays.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is strengthening largely symbolic anti-bias protections for gay state employees, attempting to douse a political firestorm set when his attorney general decreed such safeguards don’t exist.

After day of protests and legislative maneuvering, governor issues Executive Directive No. 1 to defuse gay bias controversy that started with attorney general’s opinion.

As lawmakers defeated a renewed effort yesterday to include sexual orientation in state anti-discrimination policies, about 1,000 students and faculty turned out at Virginia Commonwealth University to assail an attorney general’s opinion that targets campus diversity policies.

As lawmakers defeated a renewed effort to include sexual orientation in state anti-discrimination policies, about 1,000 students and faculty turned out at Virginia Commonwealth University today to assail an attorney general opinion that targets campus diversity policies. VCU called the campus forums on short notice in response to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s opinion that public universities do not have the authority to ban discrimination against gays without the General Assembly’s approval.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has advised public colleges and universities that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation to rescind their policies because they lack legislative authority to do so. On Tuesday Virginia Commonwealth University will hold four forums at which faculty, staff and students can discuss the attorney general’s opinion.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says Virginia’s public colleges and universities cannot prohibit discrimination against gays because the General Assembly has not authorized them to do so. In a letter Thursday to the presidents, rectors and boards of visitors of Virginia public colleges, Cuccinelli said Virginia law and public policy “prohibit a college or university from including ‘sexual orientation,‘ ‘gender identity,‘ ‘gender expression’ or like classification, as a protected class within its nondiscrimination policy, absent specific authorization from the General Assembly.“

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says Virginia’s public colleges and universities cannot prohibit discrimination against gays because the General Assembly has not authorized them to do so.

Having drowned out the hatemongers from Kansas, local people of conscience should now shift their focus to the gentler-but-not-kinder legislators at the state Capitol.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military and that the Pentagon will conduct a yearlong study of steps it must take to lift its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.