Politics

High Tech PAC From LGBT Inclusive Corporations backs Anti-Gay Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate 

Ken Cuccinelli

By Brody Levesque | FAIRFAX COUNTY -- A political action committee made up of technology company executives from compaines that have deliberately marketed themselves as LGBTQ inclusive corporations — including Facebook, Microsoft, and Northrop Grumman along with AOL, Comcast, Cox, Intuit, Microsoft, Oracle,- have endorsed Tea-Party favorite, Republican Ken Cuccinelli to be the state's next governor.

Cuccinelli has long been a foe of LGBT Equality Rights in the Commonwealth, telling an audience at a campaign debate he stands by his statements that LGBT people are “soulless” and “self-destructive.”

“My personal beliefs about the personal challenges of homosexuality haven’t changed,” Cuccinelli said at the July Virginia Bar Association convention debate against his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe.

In a 2009 op-ed for the The Virginian Pilot, Cuccinelli wrote, “Homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong.”

Based in the Washington suburban high tech corridor of western Fairfax County, the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s political action committee TechPAC, the political arm of the membership and trade association, released a statement Monday that endorsed Cuccinelli’s “experience in Virginia government, command of the issues, and knowledge of key technology priorities” which would help him “ensure the Commonwealth remains a competitive and innovative global technology center.”

TechPAC's announcement went on to say that it “supports the interests of the technology industry in Richmond and the future viability of our businesses.”  The statement notes that while TechPAC felt that a “divisive social agenda” would “seriously hurt the appeal of Virginia as a place to locate and grow businesses,” the board endorsed Cuccinelli anyway because he “assured TechPAC Trustees during the interview process that his administration will focus on jobs and the economy,” and not on right-wing social policies.

During seven years as a state senator and in the past four year as Virginia's attorney general, Cuccinelli has opposed even the most basic legal protections for LGBT people. He endorsed Virginia's anti-same sex marriage legislation and advocated for a Federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

He opposed a state bill that allowed private companies to voluntarily provide health insurance benefits to employees’ domestic partners, warning it might “encourage this type of behavior.” 

In 2010, he proffered a legal opinion known as an "AG Advisory," calling for Virginia’s public colleges and universities to rescind their nondiscrimination policies for same-sex partners. That maneuver nearly caused defence giant Northrop Grumman to reconsider relocating its corporate headquarters to the state. 

The larger Northern Virginia Technology Council released its own statement Monday noting that as the TechPAC endorsement “may not in itself reflect the views of NVTC’s membership,” in light of a deeply divided membership, it would make no endorsement in the gubernatorial election.