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---
type: "Bill"
title: "Hate crimes and discrimination; ethnic animosity, penalties."
description: "Hate crimes and discrimination; ethnic animosity; penalties. Provides that it is the policy of the Commonwealth to safeguard all individuals within the Commonwealth from unlawful discrimination in employment and in places of public accommodation because of such individual's ethnic origin and prohibits such discrimination. The bill also adds victims who are intentionally selected because of their ethnic origin 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 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 ethnic origin. This bill incorporates SB 120 and is identical to HB 18."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2024"
identifier: "SB 7"
citation: "Virginia SB 7 (2024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryce E. Reeves"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 35
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2023-11-20"
last_action: "2024-04-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/63fe5f62-4309-4579-a64b-c75ba9cfb692"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+SB7"
source_hash: "81ee470b60bae97e00e4a73ace23045bf54414acc10ab91bf068be8a4cb2c20d"
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 7 (2024) — Hate crimes and discrimination; ethnic animosity, penalties.
Hate crimes and discrimination; ethnic animosity; penalties. Provides that it is the policy of the Commonwealth to safeguard all individuals within the Commonwealth from unlawful discrimination in employment and in places of public accommodation because of such individual's ethnic origin and prohibits such discrimination. The bill also adds victims who are intentionally selected because of their ethnic origin 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 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 ethnic origin. This bill incorporates SB 120 and is identical to HB 18.
## Version chain
The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
1. **CHAP0334** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+CHAP0334)
2. **Committee substitute printed 24106213D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+SB7S1)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24100086D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+SB7)
4. **SB7ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+SB7ER)
## Votes
- Read third time and passed Senate (36-Y 0-N) — **360** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) — **220** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **990** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **400** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (14-Y 0-N) — **140** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (10-Y 0-N 2-A) — **100** (pass) · upper
## Sponsors
- Bryce E. Reeves — primary (person)
- Bill DeSteph — cosponsor (person)
- Christie New Craig — cosponsor (person)
- Christopher T. Head — cosponsor (person)
- David R. Suetterlein — cosponsor (person)
- Emily M. Jordan — cosponsor (person)
- Glen H. Sturtevant, Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- J.D. "Danny" Diggs — cosponsor (person)
- John J. McGuire, III — cosponsor (person)
- Lamont Bagby — cosponsor (person)
- Mark D. Obenshain — cosponsor (person)
- Mark J. Peake — cosponsor (person)
- Richard H. Stuart — cosponsor (person)
- Ryan T. McDougle — cosponsor (person)
- Suhas Subramanyam — cosponsor (person)
- T. Travis Hackworth — cosponsor (person)
- Tammy Brankley Mulchi — cosponsor (person)
- Tara A. Durant — cosponsor (person)
- Timmy F. French — cosponsor (person)
- William M. Stanley, Jr. — cosponsor (person)
## Timeline
The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
- **2023-11-20** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24100086D `filing, introduction`
- **2023-11-20** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2023-11-22** Impact statement from VCSC (SB7)
- **2024-01-10** Moved from Judiciary to Courts of Justice due to a change of the committee name
- **2024-01-22** Impact statement from DPB (SB7)
- **2024-01-24** Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-01-24** Committee substitute printed 24106213D-S1 `substitution`
- **2024-01-24** Incorporates SB120 (Subramanyam)
- **2024-01-24** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-29** Impact statement from VCSC (SB7S1)
- **2024-02-01** Impact statement from DPB (SB7S1)
- **2024-02-06** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (10-Y 0-N 2-A) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2024-02-08** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2024-02-08** Reading of substitute waived
- **2024-02-08** Committee substitute agreed to 24106213D-S1 `substitution`
- **2024-02-08** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB7S1 `substitution`
- **2024-02-09** Read third time and passed Senate (36-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-02-15** Placed on Calendar
- **2024-02-15** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2024-02-15** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-16** Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-20** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2024-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2024-02-21** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-21** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-26** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2024-02-26** Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB7ER) `passage`
- **2024-02-26** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2024-02-27** Impact statement from DPB (SB7ER)
- **2024-02-28** Signed by President `passage`
- **2024-03-11** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 11, 2024 `enrolled`
- **2024-03-11** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 8, 2024 `executive-receipt`
- **2024-04-02** Approved by Governor-Chapter 334 (effective 7/1/24) `executive-signature`
- **2024-04-02** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0334)
## Source
OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/63fe5f62-4309-4579-a64b-c75ba9cfb692`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).