Virginia Capitol (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Virginia lawmakers have removed “homosexuality” from the state’s definition of “sexual conduct.”
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in April 2022 signed a bill that requires school boards to notify parents about “sexually explicit materials” in the classrooms.
The Washington Post reported Youngkin last summer signed a separate measure that requires the Virginia Department of Education to publish guidance about the handling of sexually explicit material and the notification of parents about it. The guidelines, according to the Post, defined sexual conduct as “actual or explicitly simulated acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse or physical contact in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or, if such be female, breast.”
The Post reported state Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax County) “struck a compromise to get the code changed” after lawmakers failed to do so. The Fairfax County Democrat offered to support state Sen. William Stanley, Jr. (R-Franklin County)’s bill to require age verification on pornography websites in exchange for an amendment that would remove “homosexuality” from the state’s definition of “sexual conduct.”
Youngkin signed Stanley’s bill with the amendment that Surovell proposed.
Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman welcomed the revision.
“For many LGBTQ+ Virginians, their identity is not merely an action, but rather a core part of who they are and how they move through the world,” Rahaman said in a statement to the Post. “To solely equate homosexuality with ‘sexual conduct’ is both minimizing and antiquated.”
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