U.S. House hopeful Jen Kiggans voted for the pro-LGBT Virginia Values Act that faith and legal experts say “criminalizes Christians” and forces schools to allow boys to play on girls’ sports teams. A key piece of the far-left agenda pushed by pro-abortion Governor Ralph Northam and the Democrats, the legislation effectively rewrote the Virginia Human Rights Act in the image of the far-left LGBT lobby.
When the Virginia Values Act – which governs nearly all areas of everyday life with no religious exemptions – passed both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly in a partisan fashion, Kiggans broke from her party to vote with Democrats on the issue. Signed by Governor Ralph Northam in April of 2020, an official statement from the Governor’s office boasted that the Virginia Values Act would make Virginia the “first Southern state to provide sweeping anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people,” though faith and legal experts warn that in reality, the bill “criminalizes Christians” and turned everyday Virginians at odds with the extreme left LGBT lobby into bigots.
Under the law, which heavily curtails First Amendment protections, Churches and privately-operating religious schools will be forced to conform to the Democrat Party’s radical ideologies surrounding sex, gender, the family and more, or risk being slapped with $100,000 per-violation fines and endless amounts of damage payments. Schools that offer sex-specific sports and extracurricular activities could also face serious punishment if challenged under the law, with government having the ability under the Virginia Values Act to force boys on to girls’ sports teams with virtually no recourse for parents, coaches, and school administrators.
The law also targets adoption agencies placing children in married, one mother-one father households, again under threat of six-figure fines and further legal action. Property owners leasing to tenants are also targeted under the law, and can be forced to lease their own property to those living lifestyles in direct conflict with their religiously held beliefs.
Despite casting her 2019 opponent as a rubber stamp for Northam and the radical Democrats, Kiggans has repeatedly voted to advance key portions of Governor Northam’s left-wing agenda. In addition to her support of the Virginia Values Act, as previously reported by National File, Kiggans cast the deciding vote in favor of Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Just a week after assuming office in 2020, Kiggans began her career in Richmond by joining with Senate Democrats in the midst of a historic gun grab to vote in favor of ratifying the so-called Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the United States Constitution. Giving a floor speech on the issue, Kiggans, who cast the deciding vote, said that while the ERA, often described by experts as redundant and unconstitutional, isn’t needed for women to achieve great things, its ratification and apparently the potential constitutional issues that could ensue have symbolic value.
Earlier this year, and also reported by National File, Kiggans once again sided with the far-left, voting at odds even with some Democrats in moving to re-write a portion of Virginia’s state constitution at the behest of the LGBT lobby.
Seeking the Republican Party’s nomination to Congress in Virginia’s 2nd District, Kiggans has quickly become the establishment favorite in a primary race against America First conservative Jarome Bell. Currently under Democrat control, the district was formerly represented by ex-GOP Congressman Scott Taylor, who was unseated and subsequently defeated for a second time by Democrat Elaine Luria. Kiggans has told The Washington Post that she plans to employ the same strategy as Taylor in a general election by attempting to out-center her opponent.
