CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Democrats Friday seized on a media report a day earlier linking Republican nominee for Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to anti-LGBTQ policies, including employment protections.

The Virginia Mercury reported that, on a 2004 candidate questionnaire during her unsuccessful run for Congress, Earle-Sears indicated she opposed workplace protections for members of the gay community.

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, said she is “fully committed” to protecting the rights of LBGTQ people in the workplace.

“Our constitution is clear,” Sen. Hashmi told Cville Right Now on Friday. “Our responsibilities are clear. Human rights and fundamental rights of protections are for all Americans and that’s what we as elected officials have a responsibility to uphold, to make sure that we are protecting the rights of every individual and that discrimination is not in place.”

Sen. Creigh Deeds, the chairperson of the Senate’s commerce and labor committee, called Earle-Sears’s position alarming.

“As a member of the Senate, as a chairman of that committee, it’s my job to make sure people’s rights are protected,” Sen. Deeds told Cville Right Now on Friday. “And not some of the people’s rights. All of the people’s rights are protected when it comes to employment opportunities. You can’t ensure that people have success, but we all ought to have the same sort of opportunity to succeed. That she would, in this day and time, still support discrimination in employment is a little scary.”

Earle-Sears’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, leaving it unclear if she still feels the same way about LGBTQ rights that she did in 2004. But Deeds noted that Earle-Sears’ positions against gay marriage and on other issues indicate there’s been no change.

“We’ve come a long way. We’ve come a long way,” Deeds said. “I’m very disturbed that she is allowing these views to stand. There’s been no evidence that she’s changed in her thinking.”

Earle-Sears is on the GOP ticket with John Reid, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Reid is the party’s first openly gay statewide candidate.

Reid did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Deeds said the issue is another reason he’s campaigning on behalf of the Democratic ticket of Spanberger, Hashmi and attorney general nominee Jay Jones.

“I’m confident that every member of the Democratic ticket is going to be supportive of the rights of all people,” Deeds said. “I’m confident that you will see progress on all fronts to see that people’s rights are respected, protected and advanced if the Democrats are elected.”