Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli strikes again.  The controversial, right-wing pol today told a reporter he believes homosexual acts are a detriment to society because, “you certainly want everybody in society to be integrated into society.”

Huh?

People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch has posted video of the exchange from CBS 6, a local television station.

Cuccinelli is quickly becoming a national anti-gay hero.  An official opinion he wrote advising Virginia’s public colleges and universities to dump protections for LGBT employees embarrassed the state and enraged students who have been protesting since its release.

Gov. Bob McDonnell says he’s gone as far as he’s prepared to go to protect Virginia’s LGBT state workers from discrimination, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter:

Rejecting Democratic demands that he seek last-minute legislation to add anti-bias safeguards to state law, McDonnell yesterday said his public pledge to oppose prejudice and fire those guilty of it is sufficient.

“I believe that takes care of it,“ said McDonnell, ducking a question on whether he chose not to press legislation to avoid angering his conservative Republican base.

The Democrat-dominated Virginia Senate endorsed a measure to include sexual orientation in anti-discrimination laws. The proposal died in the GOP-controlled House of Delegates.

McDonnell’s  ”executive directive,” issued last week, demands that agency heads not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, but it does not have the weight of law.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli this weekend reiterated his view that state colleges and universities do not have the authority to ban anti-LGBT discrimination absent legislative action by the state’s General Assembly.  McDonnell is apparently unwilling to support such legislation, and Republican state legislators appear to be following his lead on the issue.

Under fire for several moves that have angered LGBT Virginians, Gov. Bob McDonnell sought to quiet critics today with a strongly worded “executive directive” that forbids state agencies from discriminating in hiring and treatment of public employees, and singling out sexual orientation as irrelevant to one’s qualifications for employment.  The edict does not, however, have the weight of law.  It reads, in part:

Employment discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated by this Administration. The Virginia Human Rights Act recognizes the unlawfulness of conduct that violates any Virginia or federal statute or regulation governing discrimination against certain enumerated classes of persons. The Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits discrimination without a rational basis against any class of persons. Discrimination based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation or parental status violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Therefore, discrimination against enumerated classes of persons set forth in the Virginia Human Rights Act or discrimination against any class of persons without a rational basis is prohibited.

Democrats in the Virginia legislature have tried repeatedly to enact a state law that forbids discrimination in state hiring based on sexual orientation, but the Republican-controlled House of Delegates has blocked the measure each time.

Virginia college students are particularly upset over a recent opinion from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that advised the state’s public colleges and universities to drop LGBT protections from their staff policies.

The Virginia House of Delegates today voted down a measure that would have included LGBT Virginians in non-discrimination policies for state employees.  Ken Plum, a Democratic Delegate from Northern Virginia, used a parliamentary move to force a vote on the bill.  According to a Washington Post report:

Del. Ken Plum, a Democrat from Reston, moved to revive the gay-rights bill that had languished in a House subcommittee, saying the legislature must respond to Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s recent advice to the state’s public colleges and universities that they had no legal ability to add sexual orientation to their nondiscrimination policies. Cuccinelli has recommended that such statements be rescinded.

“It’s particularly timely at this time because the eyes of the nation are upon us,” Plum said.

Del. David Englin (D-Alexandria) also rose to address the House, recalling his parents and grandparents’ stories of anti-Semitic discrimination by employers. Englin said the state must act to protect Virginia’s reputation as a desirable place to do business because some companies might see the state as intolerant.

“Let there be no mistake – Ken Cuccinelli wants to hang a sign in front of the public colleges and universities of this Commonwealth that reads ‘Gays need not apply,’” Englin said.

But Del. Robert Marshall, (R-Prince William) argued that gay people needed no “special protections” and said that the term “sexual orientation” was so broad that it would protect behaviors that could not be discussed in public.

Marshall’s motion passed, 53 to 42, burying the gay rights measure.

Virginia’s public colleges and universities don’t have the authority to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to letters sent to the schools from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, according to the Washington Post.

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

It’s unclear what effect Cuccinelli’s letter will have, or what recourse he would have should individual schools ignore it.

The move comes weeks after Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell removed LGBT protections from a routine executive order that banned discrimination in state hiring.