The Emergency Temporary Standard and this Proposed Rule both include compliance with the Governors Executive Orders (and the Orders of the Health Commissioners) as requirements under this standards.  That means the Board illegally purported to expand the penalties associated with the illegal Orders.  Those orders already carry criminal penalties of up to a year in jail-- for failing to wear a mask in an indoor building or for a boyfriend and girlfriend who do not reside together from walking together or sitting together at a religious wedding, at a farmers market, or an amusement park.  That is because the Governor believes he can define who may be close and who cannot in settings he thinks he should regulate.  This is an assault on freedom of association and there has never been a government definition like the one the Governor has come up with.  Now the Safety and Health Codes Board wants to double down on this absurd concept.  The Board apparently agrees that two people who do not live in the same house should not stand or sit together in certain settings.  There is no rationale for the distinctions.  At a religious services it must only be a family member but at a restaurant it is a party. In a farmers market it is a family member.  In the mandatory guidelines from the Virginia Department of health people may not stand next to one another if they are not from the same household at performing arts, concert venues, movie theaters, drive in entertainment, sports venues, botanical gardens, zoos, fairs, carnivals, amusement parks, museums, aquariums, historic racing facilities, bowling alleys, skating rinks, arcades, amusement parks, farmers market and at religious service.

I have my own sense of who I should or should not stand beside.  I don't need a government definition telling me otherwise.  Governor Northam claims he can define who may stand together and who may not.  Same household is ok.  Like a frat house.  A couple who does not live together-- not ok.  Seriously, none of this works and it is all an assault on fundamental rights. 

Employers or venue owners should not be asking whether people are from the same family or from the same household.  And the government should not compel them to do so.