anti-discrimination law, the Virginia Values Act, was passed in Virginia with bipartisan support, after the state's 2019 legislative elections flipped control of both the state Senate and the House of Delegates from Republicans to Democrats. Northam signed the Virginia Values Act into law on April 11, 2020. The bill, which bans discrimination throughout Virginia on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity in both public sector and private sector employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit transactions, is the first legislation in any southern state to extend anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ individuals. In 2020, Northam signed legislation expanding gender identity-related rights and protections in Virginia. Northam approved bills barring health insurance companies in the state from discriminating on the basis of gender identity; establishing a statewide standard for the treatment of transgender students in Virginia schools; introducing a non-binary gender option on Virginia driver's licenses and IDs; and removing gender reassignment surgery as a prerequisite in Virginia for those seeking to change the sex listed on their birth certificates. In March 2020, Northam signed a bipartisan bill that made Virginia the twentieth state and first southern state to ban conversion therapy for minors. Upon signing the bill, Northam issued a statement saying, "This issue is personal for me, as a pediatric neurologist who has cared for thousands of children. Conversion therapy is not only based in discriminatory junk-science, it is dangerous and causes lasting harm to our youth. No one should be made to feel wrong for who they are - especially not a child." Days later, Northam signed a bill classifying crimes targeting a victim on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity as hate crimes. That same year, Northam signed bills repealing the state legal code of Virginia's unenforceable ban on same-sex marriage; adopting gender-neutral language for spouses throughout state law; and allowing municipalities in Virginia to pass their own laws banning discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity. Marijuana In May 2020, when Democrats had fresh control of Virginia's state legislature, Northam signed a law decriminalizing marijuana for adult use. Democrats had attempted to pass legislation legalizing it in years past, but had failed every time. It was decriminalized in July 2020, but by then, the state's Democratic Party and Northam had explained that it was not enough–that racial disparities would continue to deepen with just a $25 fine. Following this revelation, he