Living in Virginia, typical news coverage of gay related issues involves reports on the latest anti-gay legislation being pushed by the Republican Party of Virginia at the direction of The Family Foundation or the latest acts of anti-gay bigotry around the state. Thus, it's a pleasant surprise to see a story where someone has done something nice to a gay Virginian. In the case at hand, anti-gay bigotry gave rise to an act of generosity by several Roanoke area businesses that restored and upgraded a car belonging to a gay college student after the car had been vandalize in an anti-gay incident. WDBJ TV7 has details. Here are highlights:
A college student has a "new" car. It's all thanks to a Roanoke auto shop. Jordan Addison is a student at Radford University. Between March and May of this year his car was vandalized four times. Once at his home and three times on-campus.
"The first time there were some homophobic slurs keyed into the side of it," says Addison, "Then the second time I had die keyed into it." Addison believes he was targeted because he's gay. The homophobic slur was written across one side of this car and he tried to everything to cover it but nothing worked.
Richard Henegar, Jr. heard what happened to Addison. "Once I saw the vandalism that was done to it I said that's uncalled for we're gonna fix your car that's the least we can do," says Henegar. He's the manager at Quality Auto Paint and Body in Roanoke and the shop decided to help Addison out for free.
Henegar estimates they spent 100 hours in the last two weeks working on the car. There are new tires, a new paint job, tinted windows, new security system, and new stereo. The total cost was well over $10,000. The new and improved car was unveiled to Addison on Monday. He was speechless. "It looks great," says Addison, "It hasn't looked that great the entire time I've had it." "We were glad to see he was pleased with it," says Henegar.
Henegar says 10 other businesses helped out. "We can't afford to do this ourselves," says Henegar, "We might have all the good intentions in the world but I can't finance something like this ourselves." Those businesses include Parts Unlimited in Vinton, Advance Auto Parts, Moon's Auto Body, Rice Toyota, Val's Automotive, The Rod Shop, B&C Exterminating, Twists & Turns, AJ's Landscaping, and Sunnybrook Auto Spa.
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