republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2020/sb-179.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Hate crimes; adds gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, penalty."
description: "Hate crimes; gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation; penalty. Adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bill also adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of hate crimes that are to be reported to the central repository of information regarding hate crimes maintained by the Virginia State Police. The bill provides that a person who is subjected to acts of intimidation or harassment, violence directed against his person, or vandalism to his real or personal property, where such acts are motivated by gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, may bring a civil action to recover his damages. The bill also provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. The bill also eliminates the mandatory minimum terms of confinement for such hate crimes. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "SB 179"
citation: "Virginia SB 179 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Barbara A. Favola"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 41
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-12-21"
last_action: "2020-04-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a5dce767-93f4-45ac-b3d3-9aef1c98925f"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB179"
source_hash: "350619d93047178906e2de86b3148f57da4500fd8e5142f9d232226ab4fe2905"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 179 (2020) — Hate crimes; adds gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, penalty.

Hate crimes; gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation; penalty. Adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bill also adds gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of hate crimes that are to be reported to the central repository of information regarding hate crimes maintained by the Virginia State Police. The bill provides that a person who is subjected to acts of intimidation or harassment, violence directed against his person, or vandalism to his real or personal property, where such acts are motivated by gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, may bring a civil action to recover his damages. The bill also provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. The bill also eliminates the mandatory minimum terms of confinement for such hate crimes. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP1171)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP1171)
2. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB179ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB179ER)
3. **Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute with amendment SB179ES1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB179ES1)
4. **Impact statement from VCSC (SB179)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB179)
5. **Impact statement from VCSC (SB179S1)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB179S1)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed Senate (26-Y 13-N) — **26–13** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment (5-Y 3-N) — **5–3** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Passage (55-Y 44-N) — **54–44** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Judiciary with substitute (8-Y 3-N) — **8–3** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations with amendment (15-Y 1-N) — **15–1** (pass) · upper
- House amendment agreed to by Senate (22-Y 17-N) — **22–17** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice with amendment (13-Y 9-N) — **13–9** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Barbara A. Favola — primary (person)
- Adam P. Ebbin — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer B. Boysko — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer L. McClellan — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Bell — cosponsor (person)
- Joseph D. Morrissey — cosponsor (person)
- Kaye Kory — cosponsor (person)
- Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-12-21** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20102367D `introduction`
- **2019-12-21** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2019-12-27** Impact statement from VCSC (SB179)
- **2020-01-08** Moved from Courts of Justice to Judiciary due to a change of the committee name
- **2020-01-15** Reported from Judiciary with substitute (8-Y 3-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-01-15** Committee substitute printed 20105706D-S1 `substitution`
- **2020-01-15** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-23** Impact statement from VCSC (SB179S1)
- **2020-01-27** Impact statement from DPB (SB179S1)
- **2020-02-05** Reported from Finance and Appropriations with amendment (15-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-07** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-07** Reading of substitute waived
- **2020-02-07** Committee substitute agreed to 20105706D-S1
- **2020-02-07** Reading of amendment waived
- **2020-02-07** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2020-02-07** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute with amendment SB179ES1
- **2020-02-07** Printed as engrossed 20105706D-ES1
- **2020-02-10** Read third time and passed Senate (26-Y 13-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-02-17** Impact statement from DPB (SB179ES1)
- **2020-02-18** Placed on Calendar
- **2020-02-18** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-18** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-18** Assigned Courts sub: Criminal `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-19** Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment (5-Y 3-N)
- **2020-02-19** Subcommittee recommends referring to Committee on Appropriations
- **2020-02-24** Reported from Courts of Justice with amendment (13-Y 9-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-26** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-27** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-27** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2020-02-27** Engrossed by House as amended
- **2020-02-27** Passed House with amendment (55-Y 44-N) `passage`
- **2020-02-27** VOTE: Passage (55-Y 44-N)
- **2020-03-02** House amendment agreed to by Senate (22-Y 17-N)
- **2020-03-06** Enrolled
- **2020-03-06** Impact statement from DPB (SB179ER)
- **2020-03-06** Signed by President
- **2020-03-06** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-03-12** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 12, 2020
- **2020-03-12** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
- **2020-04-11** Approved by Governor-Chapter 1171 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a5dce767-93f4-45ac-b3d3-9aef1c98925f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).