A Globally Diverse and Inclusive State

The Northern Virginia / D.C. metro area is the No. 1 U.S. Metro for Working Women (MagnifyMoney, 2020). Alexandria, Arlington County, Richmond, and Virginia Beach received perfect scores in the municipal equality index from the Human Rights Campaign (2020).

In 2020, Virginia became the first state in the South to extend workplace anti-discrimination protections to the LGBTQ+ community. The Virginia Values Act (VVA) expands the Virginia Human Rights Act by including the LGBTQ+ community and by increasing the number of employers subject to the law. Before this expansion, the Virginia Human Rights Act was only applicable to small employers, but these new changes extended the law’s protections for non-age-related discrimination to any employer with more than five employees.