Gay-Friendly Defense Firm Urged not to Relocate to Virginia

Advocates and legislators are attempting to dissuade gay-friendly defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. from relocating its headquarters to Virginia, due to the state's lack of protections for gay and lesbian workers.

In a February 25 letter obtained by Equality Virginia, gay Maryland state senator Richard Madaleno Jr. asked Northrop Grumman Corp. CEO Ronald D. Sugar to relocate the defense firm to his state, citing more "tolerant" nondiscrimination policies, according to Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot newspaper (Maryland forbids employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, though it does not have specific statutory language against discrimination on the basis of gender identity).

The aerospace and defense firm announced last month it plans to relocate its headquarters from Los Angeles to the Washington, D.C. ,area.

A bill that would include sexual orientation in Virginia's nondiscrimination policies for state workers only, not those in private business, passed the state senate but was rejected by a house subcommittee Tuesday. The state's new governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, refused to include sexual orientation in an executive order banning discrimination in the state workforce, although his two immediate predecessors had done so.