Trump and Pence to Address Anti-LGBT Christian Evangelical Group

While a significant number of LGBT Virginians foolishly, in my view, denounce Ralph Northam and Mark Herring, the two strongest allies they have ever had and risk that an anti-gay, anti-black Republican could be governor, Donald Trump and Mike Pence are reminding us who are real enemies are: Republicans and evangelical Christian extremists.  The idiocy of these elements in the LGBT community is mirrored by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and black pastors who are being cynically manipulated by The Family Foundation, a hate group with antecedents in the white supremacists behind Massive Resistance, likewise seem blind to what a governor Cox would mean for black Virginians. 

The Democrat quest for lifetime unblemished purity where no infraction will ever be forgiven will be the death of progress on LGBT and minority rights in Virginia. The GOP could not win the 2017 statewide elections, but are now on the verge of having Democrats rescind their victories. The political blindness to the GOP long game is mind numbing.  

But back to Trump/Pence who will be addressing the "National Prayer Breakfast" sponsored by the secretive fundamentalist, anti-LGBT organization is known as "The Family" or "The Fellowship Foundation"  that will embrace representatives of anti-gay hate groups and evangelical Christian extremists.  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at the up coming gathering of covens of anti-gay hate. Here are excerpts: 

Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will address attendees at the National Prayer Breakfast once again, early Thursday morning. The annual event attended by many presidents is hosted by a secretive Christian evangelical organization, allegedly with ties to Ugandan politicians who worked to enact the "Kill the Gays" bill. That secretive fundamentalist anti-LGBT organization is known as "The Family" or "The Fellowship Foundation." More than three thousand are expected to attend, including representatives of anti-gay hate groups and evangelical Christian extremists.

In December it was revealed admitted Russian agent Maria Butina used the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast as a networking opportunity to get prominent Russians to meet top members of the Trump administration. Butina has since pleaded guilty to felony charges and is cooperating with federal prosecutors. Her NRA-tied boyfriend was indicted on 11 felony and fraud charges Wednesday.

Bloomberg News reported in December that Butina chose 10 influential Russians to attend the 2017 National Prayer breakfast.

On Wednesday The Washington Post reported Trump will speak at the Breakfast and "is likely to play on white evangelicals' fears."

Sweeping LGBT Rights Legislation to be Introduced in Virginia General Assembly

Virginia Del.-Elect Mark Levine (D-Alexandria)

The Virginia General Assembly convenes later this month and once again the rights and lives of LGBT Virginians will be the targets of the gay haters in the Virginia Republican Party whose efforts at self-prostitution to Christofascists make a tawdry whore look principled.  On the other side of the political aisle, Democrats will be introducing bills that seek to give LGBT Virginians the non-discrimination protections taken for granted by other Virginians.  One Democrat introducing such legislation is  Del.-Elect Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) - who is openly gay - who will introduce bills calling for prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.  The Washington Blade looks at Levine and his legislative proposals.  Here are excerpts:

Gay Virginia Del.-Elect Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) says he plans to introduce legislation during the week he takes office on Jan. 13 calling for prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.

Levine won election in November to the Virginia House of Delegates 45th District, which includes the city of Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties.

He said he’s in the final stage of drafting his LGBT rights legislation and will soon decide whether the non-discrimination protections covering employment, housing and public accommodations should be combined in one bill or divided into two separate bills.

Under current Virginia law it’s legal for private employers to fire or refuse to hire someone solely because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It’s also legal for landlords to evict or refuse to rent an apartment to someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and for a restaurant or other business to refuse service to people because they’re LGBT.

Levine told the Washington Blade in a Jan. 2 interview that he understands it’s not likely that his legislation – along with as many as 19 other progressive-oriented bills he plans to introduce — will pass this year under Virginia’s Republican-controlled House of Delegates and Senate.

“Maybe they all won’t pass,” he said. “But what I’m trying to do is set the standard to say what I stand for and what my community stands for. And I’m more than willing to work with anyone on any of these bills to do some tweaking to get more support.”

Pointing to how same-sex marriage was thought to be unattainable in most parts of the country up until last year, Levine said introducing a more ambitious LGBT rights bill in Virginia will lay the groundwork for its eventual passage.

Virginia State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who became the first openly gay member of the Virginia Legislature in 2004, said he would consider introducing a companion version of Levine’s bill in the Senate.

Levine said he planned to release details of his LGBT rights legislation along with the other bills he plans to introduce at a town hall meeting Tuesday night, Jan. 5, at the Alexandria Democratic Party headquarters at 618 N. Washington St. between 7-8:30 p.m.

Once again, Levine underscores the fact that elections matter and that the LGBT community and its allies MUST get out and vote in every election.  

 

Gay Virginian Are Leaving Virginia

Not many years ago gay hater extraordinaire GOP Del. Bob Marshall admitted that his goal was to drive all gays from Virginia.  While things are changing for the better in Virginia, especially in terms of social acceptance - e.g., the boyfriend and I were at the yacht club tonight and the staff and  heterosexual friends were all happily listening as we described our wedding plans - the legal framework remains decidedly anti-gay.  As a result, Marshall is getting his wish as gays we know and others are moving to Washington, DC, and Maryland and taking their talents and assets with them.  The Commonwealth of Virginia ends up at a net loss.  All so bigots like Marshall and the Christofascist at The Family Foundation can smugly feel good about themselves.  Yes, it is sick, but such is the nature of fundamentalist Christianity in Virginia and elsewhere.  A piece in Slate looks at one Virginia gay couple that has decided to simply leave Virginia to escape the prevalent anti-gay legal reality.  But for family commitments and the boyfriend's salon, I'd leave Virginia without a moment's hesitation.  Here are highlights from the Slate piece:

In my heart, I’ll never be anything but a Virginian. I’ve spent my entire adult life here; I can recite arcane points of the state’s history; I once even helped draw the lines of our state senate districts. I’ve collected a ridiculous assortment of maps and cufflinks, rocks glasses and ties with our state seal emblazoned on them. I love this state so much that I even married a Virginia native.

But this month, I’ll be moving across the river to Washington, D.C., walking away from the state I grew up in. It’s not that I don’t still love the commonwealth. It’s that I finally realized that the commonwealth isn’t a whole lot in love with me.

I’ve lived through the banning of same-sex marriage in Virginia. I was in the fight against the marriage amendment that was added to our state’s constitution in 2006. I’ve heard delegates and state senators say that discrimination in hiring doesn’t exist and then watched them vote against a judge solely because he or she is gay. But these things didn’t really hit home until last year, when my husband and I decided to get married—and had to cross state lines just to get a valid marriage license.

The Virginia House of Delegates, meanwhile, just voted down a bill that would have allowed second-parent adoptions, because they don’t want gay couples to be able to legally adopt children. Gay couples like us. This isn’t to say that we haven’t seen steps toward progress. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine both support gay marriage and anti-discrimination laws, as do our newly elected governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. One of Attorney General Mark Herring’s first acts in his new office was to decline to defend the marriage amendment in court . . .

After the Supreme Court struck down DOMA, we changed our minds about where we wanted the marriage to be held. If we couldn’t get married in Hampton, where my husband was born and raised, or Richmond, where he went to college and I worked for years in the General Assembly, or Alexandria, the little city we decided was going to be our home, did it really matter where we had our ceremony?

If Virginia didn’t want anything to do with us, while D.C. could give us a federally recognized marriage certificate, why wouldn’t we cross the Potomac to get married there? For that matter, why couldn’t we live there?

I’d invested too much of my life to walk away. Yet walk away is exactly what I’m doing now. Virginia will inevitably join other states in allowing same sex marriages some day—but I’m no longer willing to wait for that day to come. I love my husband too much to let my state tell me he’s nothing more than a legal stranger.

I can’t, of course, completely abandon my home. I’ll continue to help out groups whose mission is to advance equality in Virginia, and I’ll support candidates who fight to pass LGBTQ-friendly legislation. We’ll keep visiting our families down in Southeastern Virginia.

I love my commonwealth, and I always will. I just don’t have to live there anymore.

I will admit that I identify with the author's feelings.  I have lived in Virginia longer than anywhere else in my lifetime.  But sooner or later being a third class citizen devoid of non-discrimination protections becomes burdensome.  Why live this way when there are viable alternatives?   And what makes it worse is knowing that this negative atmosphere exists solely so that nasty, horrible people like Bob Marshall, Victoria Cobb and others of that ilk can feel superior and justify their claimed piety by looking down on others.  I truly hope that history looks upon them with horror and that they join the ranks of those deemed to reprehensible like those who  supported the Jim Crow laws and massive resistance.  May their descendants be embarrassed to have them as ancestors.

 

McAuliffe Pledges to Sign Executive Order Banning Discrimination Against LGBT State Employees

Elections do make a difference as evidenced by Terry McAuliffe's pledge to sign an Executive Order banning anti-gay discrimination against LGBT state employees as soon as he is sworn in as Governor of Virginia.  Hopefully, the uncounted provisional ballots will put Mark Herring over the top in the race for Attorney General so that there will not be efforts made by the AG's office to sabotage McAuliffe's order.  The Washington Blade has details.  Here are excerpts:

Virginia Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday said his first executive order will be to ban discrimination against LGBT state employees.

The former chair of the Democratic National Committee made the comments during a Richmond press conference at which he announced members of his transition team that state Del. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond) will chair. McAuliffe in April expressed support for such an executive order during a speech he gave at Equality Virginia’s annual dinner in Richmond.

“I will make sure that every single individual in the commonwealth of Virginia is treated fair and equal,” McAuliffe said at the time.

McAuliffe also highlighted his support of marriage rights for same-sex couples during the Richmond press conference.

Equality Virginia Executive Director James Parrish earlier on Wednesday categorized McAuliffe and Northam’s election as “a real turning point” for the state.

“The commonwealth has never before had somebody in the governor’s seat who so openly supports equality for all Virginians,” Parrish said. “Equality Virginia is excited to work with these leaders toward a state that is more welcoming for all families.”

Parrish conceded, however, progress on LGBT-specific issues will remain a challenge because a number of anti-gay incumbents won re-election. These include state Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William County) who co-sponsored the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that voters approved in 2006.

“Unfortunately, the newly elected House of Delegates will continue to be a major road block to achieving equality in Virginia,” Parrish said.

Personally, I am happy to have an opportunity to talk with McAuliffe earlier in the election season and believe he is sincere in his support of LGBT equality: