Hampton Roads/Virginia's Achilles Heel - Social Backwardness

Both the Virginia Pilot and Daily Press are awash today with articles and columns about economic doom and gloom and the impacts that defense budget cuts could have on the Hampton Roads region and the Commonwealth of Virginia as a whole. Missing from the conversation is the elephant in the room that is a major obstacle to the recruitment of progressive and innovative entrepreneurial businesses: social policy backwardness and religious based bigotry. While Northern Virginia has flourished largely because of nearby Washington, D.C., and its bountiful government jobs and social progressiveness, the remainder of the Commonwealth is largely a different world where government policy under the current GOP/Christian Right administration is dictated as much by The Family Foundation, a falsely named Christian Right quasi-hate group, as by anything else. Add to that reality the sad fact that many people in the rest of the nation - and the world - think of Pat Robertson/Regent University and/or Jerry Falwell/Liberty University (and Matt Barber and Matt Staver) when they hear the name "Virginia." In short, not an image that would entice very many innovative and future facing businesses to want to relocate to the Commonwealth or Hampton Roads in particular.

What does Hampton Roads do to counter this unappealing image? Basically little or nothing. One hears much about the need to "diversify" the economy, but the mind set remains largely unchanged with no one willing to counter the regular pandering to Christianist sensibilities. Bigotry and religious based prejudice goes unchallenged. Local cities and representatives in the General Assembly do nothing to condemn the poison coming out of Richmond and the offices of Governor Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli who have brought Virginia vast amounts of negative news coverage around the globe.

Yes, the City of Richmond has begun to chase the LGBT tourism dollar by adding an LGBT page to its visitors and convention bureau webpage, but the sad truth is that nothing is improving for LGBT Virginians. We remain 4th class citizens with no recognition of their relationships, no employment non-discrimination protections, burdened by anti-gay adoption regulations, and faced with the fact that many large Virginia based corporations refuse to offer any type of domestic partner benefits. Candidly, I can't in good conscious recommend that anyone who is LGBT - or progressive for that matter - move to the state.

I've written before about socially conservative states falling behind economically. Bigotry, be it racially based or religiously based, is not good for business. Localities and the state can offer all the incentives to businesses that they want, but when the social atmosphere in the state remains one where progress and forward thinking people will find the state uninviting, such incentives will do little to "seal the deal" for corporate relocation. To prosper, Virginia and Hampton Roads need to place equality for all citizens and the embrace of modernity ahead of appeasing backward thinking religious conservatives.