Why Is the GOP Fighting to Preserve Monuments to Traitors?

When goes to France, one does not see statutes of those who held positions in the Vichy government.  Across the former Soviet block one sees few monuments to communist leaders and even in Russia, there has been a resurgence of recognition of the tsarist era which in retrospect was no where near as repressive and murderous as the communist era ushered in by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Brutal regimes and the losers in the stage of history are not typically honored by statutes and monuments once the regimes have fallen.  Except in the American South where a battle now rages over the statutes to the Confederacy - most erected during the Jim Crow era, not the immediate aftermath of the Civil War.  On the side of honoring those who in effect were traitors to the United States is the Republican Party, the descendant party of the one that fought the Civil War to end slavery and defeat those honored by monuments and statutes such as those on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, a truly beautiful street and grand residential area. An editorial in the New York Times asks the question of why.  My own short hand answer is that today's GOP is the party of white supremacy lead by the racist-in-chief, Donald Trump.  Here editorial highlights:

Confederate statues are being pulled down across the South — from Birmingham, Ala., to Decatur, Ga., to Richmond, Va., the Confederacy’s former capital. The U.S. Navy and the Marines have banned public displays of the Confederate battle flag — as has NASCAR.

Now, Congress is taking its own halting steps forward. On Thursday, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced that portraits of four former House speakers who also served the Confederacy would be removed from display in the Capitol in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.

The portraits are of Robert M.T. Hunter of Virginia, who was speaker from 1839 to 1841 before serving in various high positions in the Confederacy, including secretary of state; Howell Cobb of Georgia, who was speaker from 1849 to 1851 and later served as a Confederate Army officer; James L. Orr of South Carolina, speaker from 1857 to 1859, who went on to serve in the Confederate Army and in the Confederate Senate; and Charles F. Crisp of Georgia, the House speaker from 1891 to 1895, who served in the Confederate Army as a young man.

“As I have said before, the halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy,” Ms. Pelosi wrote to the clerk of the House, requesting the removal. “There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor for memorializing men who embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy.”

Over in the Senate, Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, tried to nudge his chamber forward as well. He and the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, moved Thursday to pass a bill by unanimous consent that would remove 11 monuments to Confederates from the National Statuary Hall Collection displayed in the Capitol.

Not all of Mr. Booker’s colleagues agreed. Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, blocked the move. . . . The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, was more outspoken in his opposition. On Tuesday, he derided brewing efforts to “airbrush the Capitol and scrub out everybody from years ago who had any connection to slavery” as “nonsense” and “a bridge too far.” He even felt moved to list for reporters some of the early presidents who owned slaves.

None of those presidents, it should be noted, went to war against the United States to defend slavery. Nor are all the 11 statues of peripheral figures who had just “any connection” to the war for chattel slavery. The statues include one of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America; Alexander Hamilton Stephens, the vice president; and its most famous general, Robert E. Lee. There are other statues of men less central to the rebel cause. But given that states can select any person of note from their state, surely there are many other men or women who don’t have the Confederacy on their résumés.

Is this really the hill that the Party of Lincoln wants to fight on in 2020? What an ignoble, lost cause.

Once again, America is showing itself to be exceptional, but not in a good way.

Donald Trump: Last President of the Confederacy

As more and more states and cities begin to finally recognize Confederate monuments - most, like those erected in Richmond fifty or more years after the end of the Civil War - for what they were meant to be, a message to blacks that whites were once again in charge and that blacks were again subjugated, die hard racists are foaming at the mouth.  These monuments all appeared as Southern states (sadly Virginia lead the way) formally ended Reconstruction and fully implemented the Jim Crow era.  As a piece in History notes, states implemented :black codes:

Black codes were strict local and state laws that detailed when, where and how formerly enslaved people could work, and for how much compensation. The codes appeared throughout the South as a legal way to put black citizens into indentured servitude, to take voting rights away, to control where they lived and how they traveled and to seize children for labor purposes.

In addition, monuments to the Confederacy and the effort to romanticize the "Lost Cause" grew - Virginia has the most Confederate monuments of any Southern state. History also notes the timing of these memorials:

Most of these monuments did not go up immediately after the war’s end in 1865. During that time, commemorative markers of the Civil War tended to be memorials that mourned soldiers who had died  . . . . “Eventually they started to build [Confederate] monuments,” he says. “The vast majority of them were built between the 1890s and 1950s, which matches up exactly with the era of Jim Crow segregation.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s research, the biggest spike was between 1900 and the 1920s. In contrast to the earlier memorials that mourned dead soldiers, these monuments tended to glorify leaders of the Confederacy . . . 

Given this history, blacks have good reason to find the monuments offensive.  It also explains why they are so loved by white supremacists, including the current occupant of the White House who continues to speak out against their removal and to lash out against NASCAR's decision to ban confederate flags from its events.  A a column in the Washington Post looks at Trump's racism and efforts to please white supremacists (and white Christofascists).  Here are column highlights:

It should have happened 155 years ago, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, but maybe — just maybe — the Civil War is finally coming to an end. And perhaps Donald Trump, not Jefferson Davis, will go down in history as the last president of the Confederacy.

Symbols like flags and monuments matter, because what they symbolize is our vision of ourselves as a nation: the heroes, battles, movements, sacrifices and ideals we honor. So when I see multiracial crowds toppling the statues of Confederate soldiers and politicians, when I see respected military leaders arguing that Army posts should no longer bear the names of Confederate generals, when I see NASCAR banning displays of the Confederate battle flag at its races — witnessing all of this, I let hope triumph over experience and allow myself to imagine that this may indeed be a transformational moment.

Like the Civil War itself, “Lost Cause” symbology is simply and entirely about white supremacy. It has nothing to do with “heritage” or “tradition” or any such gauzy nonsense. The heavily armed “liberate Michigan” mob that invaded the statehouse in Lansing, egged on by President Trump, had no historical reason to be waving the Confederate flag.

Lee’s surrender ended nothing, because the nation did not even begin to grapple with white supremacy. Reconstruction was strangled in its infancy; true racial reconciliation was never even attempted. The statue of Davis in Richmond, brought down by protesters Wednesday night, was not erected until 1907. Like almost all of the Lost Cause monuments, it was built during the revanchist era, when Southern whites were celebrating their reestablished dominance over African Americans via repressive Jim Crow laws and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan.

Many recall that the Confederate flag at the South Carolina statehouse was taken down in 2015 following the massacre of nine African American worshipers by a white supremacist at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston. Few realize that the racist flag had been installed at the statehouse not in 1861 but a century later, in 1961, when black South Carolinians like my parents were agitating for the right to vote.

The killing of Floyd has provoked a national moment of reckoning with police violence and white supremacy. But the position of the Trump administration is that systemic racism does not even exist — that our unexamined and unaddressed racial problems all come down to a few “bad apples” here and there.

Trump has used this moment to side with Lost Cause white supremacy. His all-caps tweets for “LAW & ORDER” sound like George Wallace when he was governor of Alabama; his demand for a militarized response to the protests reminds me of Bull Connor, the Birmingham commissioner of public safety who attacked nonviolent civil rights protesters with water hoses and vicious dogs.

When it was reported that high-ranking Army officials are open to stripping the names of Confederate generals from military posts such as Fort Bragg, Fort Benning and Fort Hood, Trump reacted instantly. He tweeted Wednesday that he “will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.”

He may be historically ignorant enough not to know that the generals in question were traitors as famous for the battles they lost as for any of their triumphs; that ultimate victory went to the Union, not the Confederacy; and that the whole point of the rebellion was to deny freedom to African Americans. Or he may know these facts but believe his political base doesn’t.

NASCAR banned the Confederate flag. If there is one sporting venue that Trump might think of as a safe space, it would be a NASCAR race — until now. Heck, I might even go watch a race when the pandemic ends.

Trump must be bewildered. Unsubtle appeals to racial animus (remember his “birther” lies) have always worked for him in the past, but now he seems to be flailing. If it turns out that the Lost Cause is finally, truly lost, then so is the president who made himself its champion.

Richmond Dodges a Bullet As Smaller Crowd of Extremists Protest

The city of Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia dodge a bullet - literally and figuratively - as a much smaller than predicted crowd of gun extremist protesters - many from out side of Virginia - descended on the Virginia Capitol in an effort to intimidate members of the General Assembly.  Promoters had raved about 100,000 pro-gun nuts attending the rally, but police estimates place the crowd at a little over 20% of that number.  Thankfully, no violence occurred, probably largely due to the preemptive action of Governor Northam in banning guns from the Capitol grounds.  Plus, one needs to keep in mind that those who descended on Richmond are an aberration and/or outsiders given that recent polls confirm that the vast majority of Virginians want the gun control measures now before the General Assembly.  As the a column in the Washington Post aptly notes, what today's gun rally really demonstrated was the fear (and I would argue sexual inadequacy) that motivates the attendees who, based on their looks, my late New Orleans southern belle grandmother would have described as "white trash" - the lowest of the low in her book.  Fear of a loss of white privilege.  Fear of a changing world and society. Fear of a loss of white male dominance. They rant about the Second Amendment, but beneath that, something is going on that suggests that something is seriously wrong with these protesters. Here are highlights from the Post column:

Y'all, it smelled like fear out here in Virginia.

Scores of men — plus a handful of women — dressed up in battle rattle and draped themselves with assault weapons, long guns and handguns on Monday. They strapped hunting knives to their thighs and wore body armor and body cameras on their chests, shoulders and helmets. To a rally. A peaceful rally. On city streets in a quiet state capital on a holiday weekend.

That’s a uniform of fear, right there.

Fear of having to pass a background check if they want to buy a gun from a private individual?  Fear of not being able to buy more than one handgun every month?

Fear of not being able to carry an AR-15 across your chest to a county fair that doesn’t want your weapon aboard the Tilt-a-Whirl?

Fear of getting help taking a gun away from your suicidal son?

Because those are all the restrictions on guns that the Virginia [Senate]  passed last week.
The outsized turnout, vigor and rancor in Richmond on Monday — thousands of demonstrators filled the Capitol grounds and surrounding streets — is a reaction based on fear, not fact.

And the fear is all about a loss of power.

“It happened like that,” a man dressed in full camo with a handgun strapped to his hip told his friend, snapping his finger. “We were good for years, then the left took over and they’re going to take our guns away. Virginia is the home of the NRA. They want to run them out, too.”

Most law-abiding, regular old Virginians could still have a weapon — many weapons, even — under the common-sense legislation that the new Democratic majority in Richmond is passing.

Huge assault weapons strapped across chests and backs knocked against each other in the port-a-potty lines. Some walked in a masked phalanx, bookended by German shepherds.
One group pushed through crowds in a conga line of camo and Carhartt, holding on to each other as they muscled through a crush of people. “Racist, white supremacists coming through,” one line leader bellowed, laughing, like everyone should know he really isn’t racist.

All of the men I talked to were also solidly opposed to “red-flag laws,” which allow a concerned family member or the police to ask for the temporary removal of weapons from someone who may be dangerous to themselves or others.

“I can just tell the cops that a guy I hate is dangerous, and they’ll go take all his guns. It can happen to me,” one guy told me.

Nope. That may be what he fears. But the red-flag law requires a state court to be petitioned and a judge to weigh in on whether taking the gun is appropriate.

Let me spell it out: The people who lobby for red-flag laws are usually those who lost a loved one to suicide.

Thirty percent of gun deaths in Virginia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are homicides.

A much larger percentage — 67 percent of all gun deaths in the state — are suicides.

The suicide-by-gun rate — about two a day in Virginia — takes primarily rural, white males over the age of 45, according to numbers compiled by America’s Health Rankings. And veterans are 1.5 times as likely to take their lives in Virginia.

That almost perfectly describes the demographic at the gun rally in Richmond.

Think about it, guys. The biggest thing you have to fear, when it comes to guns, is yourselves, actually.

Richmond Braces for Invasion of Extremists As Trump Fans Flames

Members of a "Lightfoot Militia" - these are
NOT sportsmen or those focused on self-defense.

The husband and I have a number of friends in Richmond, know a number of members of the Virginia General Assembly, and are friends with Governor Northam and the First Lady of Virginia.  It is with horror that we watch that city braces for a possible invasion by some of the ugliest elements in America.  A piece at NBC News looks at the fear gripping Richmond where businesses will be closed and some are staying in other parts of the city away from the Capitol area. Making maters worse, Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer on this blog, is fanning the flames of hate on the right and then suggesting Republicans will win in Virginia in 2020, suggesting just how delusional Trump is - he is widely hated in Virginia and, if Richmond sees violence tomorrow, rest assured the so-called urban crescent of Virginia will vote even more heavily Democrat.  A piece in Vanity Fair looks at Trump's dangerous and irresponsible behavior:

A tweet from President Donald Trump Friday, one of the sort that Speaker Nancy Pelosi might categorize as “crazy,” drew sharp criticism for seeming to fan the flames of unrest ahead of a gun-rights rally in Richmond, Virginia.

Trump’s social-media eruption warns Virginians that their 2nd Amendment rights are “under attack,” and offers a sarcastic “thank you” to Virginia Democrats who will “take your guns away.”

Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund called Trump’s comment “irresponsible and utterly, truly unconscionable.”
 After the deadly events in nearby Charlottesville during the “unite the right” rally in 2017, [Trump] the president was sharply criticized for blaming violence on “both sides.”

Trump seemingly wants violence so he can use further fear mongering with his hideous base of support that increasingly seems to consist of outright racists, white supremacists and evangelical "Christians" (who in general are also racists/white supremacists in my view having followed right wing  "Christian" organization for over 20 years)

As for some of the types of out of state extremists on their way to Richmond, the Washington Post has more information.  Belatedly, Republicans who for years have given a wink and a nod to some of the dangerous extremists in the party base seem to have awoken to the danger these people pose to the public.  Here are artile highlights:

RICHMOND — The convoys and militias are coming, if social media posts are to be believed, headed to Virginia's capital to take a stand for gun rights — or, in the words of some, to fan the flames of a civil war.

“I’ll be rolling into town early. I can’t give you my exact time for security reasons,” said Christian Yingling, head of the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia and a leader at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

“I organized a convoy, places we can meet up and drive up together. I’ll be leading it,” said Tammy Lee, a militia activist in Oklahoma.

Both Lee and Yingling were members of groups that signed consent decrees never to return to Charlottesville while armed, part of a lawsuit settlement over the violence there. But there is no restriction against coming to Richmond.

Thousands will join them, they say, for a rally Monday on Capitol Square to protest plans by the new Democratic majority in the General Assembly to pass gun-control laws. State and federal officials were preparing for a volatile mix of weapons, passions and anti-government fervor. Central Richmond was braced for road closures and extensive police presence.

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued temporary flight restrictions for Richmond airspace, making it illegal to fly planes or drones above the city on Monday. Northam has said officials are concerned about threats from weaponized drones.

The pro-gun rally is always the most visible event, but this year it has virtually wiped out everything else. The Virginia Citizens Defense League has appealed for 10,000 supporters to show up unarmed to fill Capitol Square and asked several times that many stand outside with weapons.

One of Richmond’s staunchest gun rights Republicans, who needled Northam over the ban earlier in the week, closed ranks with the governor after a closed-door briefing on the security threats Friday.

“Any group that comes to Richmond to spread white supremacist garbage, or any other form of hate, violence, or civil unrest isn’t welcome here,” House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) said in a written statement Saturday. “While we and our Democratic colleagues may have differences, we are all Virginians and we will stand united in opposition to any threats of violence or civil unrest from any quarter.”

Gilbert declined to discuss the content of the briefing, but his statement referred to efforts to “infuse” the event with a “twisted or extreme worldview.”

National militia and extremist groups have mobilized, with some making threats against elected officials. Many promise to use Virginia as the place to take a stand against what they see as a rising tide of anti-gun sentiment, invoking language of insurrection and civil war.

Lee, the convoy leader from Oklahoma, has promoted the Richmond rally in Facebook live videos. “I can absolutely not wait,” she said in one. “This may possibly be the first time that almost the entire patriot movement is there.”

But in a video posted Friday, she also expressed dread. “If you’re not apprehensive about going to this event, then I would worry about you and your mental state and your thought process,” she said.

In an interview, Lee said the convoy would kick off in Oklahoma on Saturday morning and swing through 10 states before its scheduled arrival in Richmond on Sunday afternoon. She declined to say how many vehicles or people would be involved.
In a recent video, she indicated that the gun rights movement was fractured over whether the out-of-state militias would help or hinder their cause in Richmond.

“While some don’t want outsiders coming in, it’s too late for that,” she said. “There are so many people woke to what’s happening … that I don’t think you could keep people away if you wanted to.”

I hope sane Virginians are watching and will punish Republicans further at the polls come November, 2020.

2019 Blue Commonwealth Gala

Over the years I have contributed to individual candidates - more recently Democrats - but have not gone to a political party fundraiser in over 20 years since I left the GOP after that party was taken over by Christofascists who turned that party into the equivalent of a rabid dog.  That was until now.  With all 140 seats in the Virginia General Assembly up for election in November, 2019, the husband and I will be traveling to Richmond today to attend the Blue Commonwealth Gala - a Democrat Party fundraiser - in Richmond (thanks to our friend Jenny who will be house/dog sitting for us).  Headlining the event is presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg who will now be joined by rival candidate Amy Klobuchar.  Other speakers include a who's who of Virginia's Democrat congressional officeholders.

For years now, the Virginia GOP's strangle hold on the General Assembly has held Virginia back and blocked an array of legislation that would benefit Virginians ranging from commonsense gun control, to LGBT non-discrimination protections, to ending medical care disparities for minorities and poor Virginians (Governor Northam is currently pushing to end the disparity in maternal deaths for minority mothers).  Indeed, winning Democrat control of the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate in November, 2019, will be decisive in determining whether Virginia will continue to emerge as a leading modern state or remain part of the southern states backwater that want to turn the clock back to the 1950's or earlier. 

I urge fellow Virginians to get politically involved, make sure you are registered to vote, and go out and vote in both November, 2017, in the Virginia elections, and in November, 2020.  We need to turn Virginia blue and send a message to Donald Trump.  Then, in November, 2020, we need to take back America in 2020 from the Trumpists and extremists who now control the GOP. 

Will Southern Suburbs Abandon the GOP?

One of the keys to turning Virginia blue in statewide elections has been growing support for Democrats in suburban areas, particularly Northern Virginia.  The reality has become that if a Democrat carries the so-called "urban crescent" from Northern Virginia southward to Richmond and then southeaster to Hampton Roads, there simply are not enough votes in the rural, reactionary regions of the state to overcome the deficit.  One aspect of this change has been the flight of college educated whites from the GOP, a party that now is overtly racist, panders to Christian extremists, and embraces ignorance - all thing deemed offensive by a majority of college educated whites (and I would argue, decent, truly moral people). As the 2018 midterms approach (and 2020 two years from now), one of the questions of the day is whether the flight from the GOP in other southern suburbs can propel Democrats to statewide victories and flipping congressional districts.  A piece in CNN looks at the phenomenon.  Here are excerpts:

One key measure of any Democratic wave in the midterm elections will be whether it crests high enough to overcome the formidable Republican defenses in the growing suburbs across the South. The answer will have implications that extend far beyond 2018.

While Democrats have notched significant gains since the 1990s among white-collar suburban voters in most parts of the country, they have until recently made very little progress at loosening the Republican hold on affluent and increasingly racially diverse suburbs around such Southern metro areas as Atlanta, Houston and Dallas. But suburban unease with Donald Trump's turbulent presidency may finally provide Democrats an opening to establish a beachhead in such places -- a development that would rattle the electoral map. Although the recoil from Trump among white-collar suburbanites inside the South is not as great as outside of it, both public and private polls signal that enough suburban voters are pulling away from him to create much greater opportunity than usual for Democrats this fall in the governor's race in Georgia, Senate races in Tennessee and Texas, and several suburban House seats across the region.
 [W]e are also definitely making inroads first and foremost with college-educated white women, but also college-educated white men." Many of the most vulnerable Republican House seats around the country are centered on white-collar suburbs. Democrats have strong opportunities in suburban seats from New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia through Northern Virginia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Denver and Los Angeles. That vulnerability is rooted in the unusual resistance Trump faces among well-educated white voters: Three national polls last week each found that around 60 percent of whites holding at least a four-year college degree disapproved of his performance.
 In addition, gains in white-collar suburbs will be critical to Democratic prospects in the Georgia governor's race between African-American Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp; the highly competitive Tennessee Senate contest between former Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen and Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn; and the more uphill, but still competitive, challenge by Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas.
 Even if Democrats fall short in some or all of these races, a significantly improved performance in white-collar suburbs could offer them a roadmap for seriously contesting North Carolina, Georgia and perhaps even Texas against Trump in 2020 -- when African-Americans, Latinos and other minority voters, who mostly lean Democratic, will likely comprise a bigger share of the electorate than this fall. But in virtually every state in which Democrats have grown more competitive since the early 1990s, increased minority participation has been only part of the equation -- it has been necessary, but not sufficient. Whether in California, Illinois and New Jersey, which tilted toward Democrats in the 1990s, or Colorado, Virginia and (more equivocally) North Carolina, where the party strengthened its position in the 2000s, the winning Democratic formula has combined both an increase in minority participation and improved performance among college-educated white voters. In the states where Democrats have gained ground in recent decades, those two changes have offset lackluster, and an often deteriorating, performance with evangelical, rural and non-college educated white voters. [Wendy] Davis pointed to two principal reasons Southern suburbs have remained so difficult for Democrats.  "One is that we've had a booming economy and it's the economy stupid as the saying goes, so people have felt pretty satisfied with where things are," Davis said. "We also suffer the problem of being absolutely ignored in presidential election contests which means that we haven't built the infrastructure that's necessary to communicate with a lot of the voters that are needed."
 The Democratic improvement in white-collar suburbs in other regions has been keyed largely by cultural affinity, since many college-educated voters, especially women, take more liberal positions on social issues from abortion and gay rights to gun control. But fewer Southern suburbanites are social liberals, probably because more of them than elsewhere are evangelical Christians or otherwise religiously traditional. Democrats still confront all of these barriers this year. But Trump's rise has provided them a new opening. With his racially infused nationalism and belligerent personal style, Trump conspicuously lost ground across many Southern suburbs in his 2016 race against Hillary Clinton when compared to Mitt Romney's performance in the same places in 2012. . . . in key suburbs around the major metropolitan areas, such as Gwinnett and Cobb counties outside of Atlanta, the shift away from the GOP was undeniable and ominous for Republican strategists. . . . Basically we've traded the smaller, slower growing more rural counties for larger fast growing suburban counties." In last November's Virginia governor's race, Democrat Ralph Northam posted big advances not only in suburbs outside of Washington DC, which politically behave more like Northern suburbs, but also the suburban communities around Richmond, which have tilted more reliably Republican. A more immediate problem for Texas Democrats, he said, may be improving their performance among Latino voters, among whom Republicans have retained a significant minority of support even under Trump. Still, the most recent statewide poll conducted by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune in June shows some clear openings for Democrats among well-educated white voters who have previously resisted them.
 [N]ow in Georgia, he adds, "If you are the business community, you have to think twice about do you get behind a Republican as you normally would, or would Kemp scare away business?" . . . Whether or not Abrams makes history as the nation's first female African-American governor, November's results in suburban Atlanta will provide one revealing measure of whether Democrats can truly pressure Trump in 2020 in Georgia -- and perhaps elsewhere across the South.

I truly hope that Democrats replicate Northam's ground game which resulted in a surge of Democrat turn out across demographic groups.  Of course, Gillespie's decision to tie himself to Trump made that all the easier.  

The Constitution Murders

Conover Hunt at the Hampton Yacht Club

Having majored in history in college, I love a good history book.  I also love a good mystery/suspense book, especially one with foreign intrigue.  In the Constitution Murders, available on Amazon, our dear friend, Conover Hunt has created a combination of the two.  Yes, many characters are fictional, but woven throughout are real nuggets of history - something Conover knows well given that she has written 7 or 8 history works and was the creator of the Book Depository museum in Dallas, Texas (she's an expert on the Madison administration and the JFK assassination).  She even works in a thread involving the Romanov dynasty - something of interest to me since Anna Anderson (who said she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia) was one of my neighbors in Charlottesville many years ago.  Also in the book are insider glimpses of Hampton and Richmond.

Holiday Get Away - Ft. Lauderdale

This morning the husband and I are headed to Ft. Lauderdale for a week (instead of giving each other Christmas and birthday presents, etc., we go on trips)!  We are looking forward to warm weather and seeing many friends who either live in the area or who, like us, like to vacation there. We will be staying at a gay guest house and using it as our base of operations. We will have Christmas dinner with friends from Newport News who have a gorgeous home in Ft. Lauderdale.  We have at least two dining events planned for the Lauderdale Yacht Club with clients of mine and the husband (our Hampton Yacht Club membership provides nice reciprocal benefits!).  We also hope to do some shopping and find some special tuxedo jackets to wear to the Inaugural Ball in Richmond on January 13th in Richmond (we will be going up to Richmond on the 6th to give the governor elect a haircut).  

On the home front, a friend will be staying at our home and house sitting and dog sitting for us. It works best all around.  On the blogging front, I will be posting to the extent our social engagements and relaxing by the pool/on the beach permits.

Equality Virginia Commonwealth Dinner - Reflections

This weekend has been largely non-stop.  Hence the lack of posts today.  We drove to Richmond yesterday morning, settled into our friend's home that was on loan, went out to lunch and then more or less socialized non-stop other than sleeping and driving back from Richmond today.   The Commonwealth Diner was, as always a great time.  This year, too my surprise and humility, I was selected to be one of the "Outstanding Virginians" of 2017.  Besides seeing many friends, I had the surprise pleasure of seeing a former law school roommate and, of course, got to share the stage with six other amazing people who were similarly honored, including my friend Gavin Grimm.  As has been the norm for many of the more recent years, the event included a who's who of elected officials - at least Democrats since Republicans sadly still act as if LGBT individuals were lepers - and I had the privilege of having my award handed to me by our friend, Lt. Governor, Ralph Northam.  

After staying up way too late last night, the husband and I hosted a brunch in Richmond before heading back to Hampton and an event at the Hampton Yacht Club for new members and their sponsors (we sponsored a friend).  It will truly be early to bed this evening!  Some photos are above and below.  Yes, the husband and I did dress a bit over the top, :)

The take away from the weekend?  Now, more than ever it is critical that LGBT individuals "come out" and witness to others who they are.  Our enemies find it easy to demonize some theoretical stereotype.  But when faces and stores are connected to what our foes strive to label as the "other," suddenly anti-LGBT propaganda falls flat and is far less effective.  Living "out" and proudly is one of the highest forms of activism. 

EV Commonwealth Dinner - Reduced Posting

This morning the husband I and his sister and a dear friend are driving to Richmond to attend Equality Virginia's Commonwealth Dinner.  We will be staying at the home of a friend who is a member of Gov. McAuliffe's cabinet as we have done in previous years when attending the gala fundraiser.  The big difference this year is that I will be honored as an "Outstanding Virginian" along with six other honorees.  As an added treat, one of my law school roommates who I haven't seen in almost 20 years will be attending and sitting at my table.I am both excited and nervous about the event and suspect the nervousness will build as I get closer to standing in front of 1200 some people, including the Governor of Virginia (who is the keynote speaker) and other important elected officials. 

Between the cocktail party before ther event, the reception, dinner and post dinner party, posting on this blog will suffer. Expect pictures and reflections tomorrow late in the day.

PS, as is our habit, we have a friend staying at the house to house sit and baby sit the two Chihuahuas who while sweet and loving are truly some of the most spoiled dogs in Virginia.  

2017 "Outstanding Virginian" - An Unexpected Honor

Each year for the last eight years Equality Virginia ("EV") - Virginia's leading LGBT advocacy group - honors individuals at its Commonwealth Dinner gala in Richmond that it describes as "Outstanding Virginians"  EV describes the designation as follows:

Statistics show that knowing someone within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community increases support for LGBT rights. This positive correlation makes coming out a critical component of the LGBT movement’s future progress.

OUTstanding Virginians are  lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied individuals or organizations that are taking the lead in moving equality forward across the commonwealth.In light of the importance of being out to the LGBT movement, each year Equality Virginia recognizes leaders who have represented the community with distinction.

The 2017 OUTstanding Virginians will be honored at the 14th Annual Commonwealth Dinner on April 1, 2017.

Much to my amazement I am  one of the seven (7) honorees for 2017.  The portion of the initial announcement that pertains to me reads as follows (a more detail bio and description will soon appear on the EV website):

Michael Hamar, Norfolk: Michael is an ardent advocate for LGBT rights locally and throughout the state. He writes an internationally read blog on political and LGBT issues, and articles for Veer and Unity magazines, and supports many LGBT and progressive political organizations and leaders. In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast, he worked to find safe housing and support in Virginia for LGBT residents who lost their homes. He also created an endowment in his late parents' names to help LGBT students attend college.

I am very humbled to have been chosen for this award.  I hope that readers in Virginia will consider attending the Commonwealth Dinner on April 1, 2017 at the Richmond Convention Center. Details on the dinner and how to purchase tickets can be found here (the husband and I are table hosts, so sign up to be at one of our tables).  Each year 1200-1500 people attend and the event is usually heavily attended by politicos and some celebrities.   Hope to see you in Richmond!!

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Warren Beatty Is Still Seducing Hollywood

As a teen, I thought Warren Beatty was hot.  It's one of the weird aspects of being in denial about one's sexual orientation: you struggle to convince yourself that you are straight even as you have attraction to gorgeous males. The mental gymnastics are insane.  Now, Vanity Fair has a lengthy article on Richmond, Virginia born Beatty - who has a transgender son.  On a dreary Saturday morning, the article is an interesting read.  Here are brief highlights:

He is one of the most famous actors of the second half of the 20th century, was the most talked-about wooer of women in his day (his former paramours are legion, and all are beauties), and is one of Hollywood’s more successful filmmakers, known for equal amounts of shrewdness and seductive charm. He has been called “the Prince of Hollywood,” “the Pro,” and “Boss.” He was a famous movie star before any of them—before Clint, before Redford, before Dustin, before Pacino, even before his good friend Jack Nicholson. Throughout his nearly 60-year career as an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer, Warren Beatty has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards (including best actor, best picture, best director, best original screenplay, and best adapted screenplay), winning the best-director Oscar for Reds in 1981. He pops up in the diaries of Andy Warhol, the journals of J.F.K. historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a biography of James Baldwin, and countless celebrity memoirs. Although a decade can pass between the release of his movies, when they arrive on the scene they are cultural events. And he’s coming squarely back into the public gaze again this year, with Rules Don’t Apply, the rumored re-release of Bulworth, and the upcoming 50th anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde, in which he starred as Clyde Barrow.

Due to be released next month, Rules Don’t Apply has been described as a biographical film about eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, but it’s actually about two would-be lovers finding themselves in the labyrinth of Hollywood against a backdrop of 1950s sexual repression. Beatty plays Howard Hughes in a supporting role.

“There’s this misapprehension that it’s a biopic,” Beatty explains, “which it’s not, although Howard is an important character in it. I wanted to do a story about a girl who comes from being the Apple Blossom Queen of Winchester, Virginia [Marla Mabrey, played by Lily Collins], and a boy who is a Methodist from Fresno [Frank Forbes, played by Alden Ehrenreich], who is under the same religious influences that I was raised in. I wanted to do a story about that young man and that young woman that also deals with money and misogyny in late-1950s Hollywood.”

One doesn’t immediately associate Beatty with puritanical guilt and repression, but that is the world he grew up in, in conservative Virginia in the 1940s and 50s, and the one he has rebelled against his entire life. “I’m afraid it still remains a big subject in America,” he says, “which often makes us the laughingstock of France and other European countries. So I thought this would be fun to deal with—a young man and a young woman involved with an unpredictable billionaire, who had no rules he had to follow because of his inheritance and his way of life. So it’s also about the effect of Hollywood on those rules, and the effect of money.”

The story of a young man coming to Hollywood from a conservative background is one he knows all too well. He and his sister, the actress Shirley MacLaine, were raised by Southern Baptist parents. Still, the family was somewhat bohemian. Their mother was an acting teacher, their father a high-school principal who was also something of a raconteur and bon vivant. Beatty recalled the first time he came downstairs dressed in a suit for church, astonishing his parents. He also admitted being convinced that if he had sex with a girl, he would have to marry her, one of the many autobiographical touches he brings to Rules Don’t Apply. 

Just as Beatty was something of a sexual revolutionary in the years emerging from the strict mores of the 1950s, so his firstborn child is also a revolutionary. Stephen, who is challenging cultural norms of sexuality, is an activist for the transgender community. Identifying as transitioned at the age of 14, he changed his name from Kathlyn Elizabeth to Stephen Ira. A poet and writer, he posted an “Answer to Seven Questions” about his gender identity on the “WeHappyTrans” Web site. One is struck by Stephen’s insouciant intelligence—he manages to be playful, erudite, and eloquent all at once.

“He’s a revolutionary, a genius, and my hero, as are all my children,” Beatty says when asked about Stephen.
 

Beatty with sister, Shirley MacLaine

How Virginia Ceased to Be a "Red State"

Virginia population change - the areas in blue are the GOP strongholds

Since my early days in the Republican Party there has been a sea change in Virginia politics and elections - at least outside of carefully gerrymandered districts to favor the GOP (for the record, the gerrymandering occurred well after I left the Republican Party).  The new reality is that for Republicans running statewide, especially at the presidential level, Virginia is an increasingly hostile state.  Why?  The rapidly changing demographics of Virginia and the rising voting strength of the so-called "urban crescent" that stretches from the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., south through Richmond and then on to Hampton Roads.  The population of this urban crescent exceeds that of the rest of the state and can, therefore, out vote the GOP strongholds in rural Virginia.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at this major - and in my view, very positive - change.  Here are excerpts:

A little more than a decade ago, President George W. Bush won Virginia with ease for a second time — an eight-point victory that was never in doubt.

Over the subsequent eight years, nearly the opposite happened: Barack Obama won the state twice, becoming the first Democrat to win here since Lyndon B. Johnson’s victory in 1964.

Now, Virginia appears to be drifting out of reach for Republican Donald Trump; he trailed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by 13 percentage points in an NBC-Wall Street Journal-Marist poll released Friday. Analysts are contemplating taking Virginia off the list of presidential battlegrounds entirely and tucking it neatly in the column of safely blue states.
 Where uncertainty remains is whether that status applies only this year, because of the steady decline of Trump’s campaign, or whether it is a sign of a longer-term problem for Virginia Republicans that will extend beyond presidential races in years to come.

What is clear is that the demographics of the state have shifted dramatically in the space of a single decade, with populations of educated, high-income professionals as well as immigrants and other minorities — all voters who tend to choose Democrats — growing in urban areas. These shifts reflect national trends, Pew research shows.

[Trump] also has alienated large swaths of the electorate that have become deciding factors in Virginia races: women, minorities and educated professionals.  David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report predicted that Trump is at risk of losing by a landslide in the vote-rich suburbs of Northern Virginia — and that no amount of support in the less-populous rural regions could counteract that.

Even Virginia Republicans acknowledge the challenge. Trump counts few Republican elected officials among his vocal supporters in part due to some of his more inflammatory comments, which have alienated groups including women, Muslim Americans, Hispanics and those with disabilities.

Here’s another way to look at it: From the 1992 to the 2012 presidential elections, the population of Northern Virginia grew from 1.5 million to 2.2 million. And it grew with an influx of a particular kind of voter; in that same time period, in Fairfax County alone, Democrats’ lead over Republicans in Fairfax grew from three points to 15 points, according to election returns, with Obama garnering nearly 6 in 10 votes.

Now, Democrats rely on what may be fast becoming a fail-safe formula: Focus on turning out voters in the “urban crescent” of Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads and the college towns of Charlottesville and Blacksburg, and it becomes really hard to lose. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) used this playbook to defeat Republican Ken Cuccinelli II in the 2013 governor’s race — and Clinton is on track to do the same this year.

Even with the relatively high turnout of a presidential year, there simply aren’t enough Trump voters to overtake Democrats’ edge in the north. 

While things are looking more and more positive in Virginia, the same trend is happening in states like North Carolina - and even in Texas.   The demographics that favor Democrats are steadily growing and the GOP has done nothing but alienate these voters. 

Limited Posting

Last month I had a cyst removed from my left ring finger.  The diagnosis was benign, but due to some unusual aspects, the removal of additional tissue was recommended as a precaution.  Locally, the non-expert physicians recommended removing my finger.  I said "no way, no how" and got a second opinion from two physicians at the Medical College of Virginia hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Tomorrow I will be traveling back to Richmond for this follow up surgery that will remove more tissue and repair my finger without losing it.  I am relieved to know that what I had was not malignant, but I'm less than thrilled at the prospect of more surgery.  The husband and I will drive up early tomorrow for the outpatient procedure.  Depending on when we get back and how doped up I am on pain meds, I will hopefully post tomorrow afternoon or evening.  I will keep readers updated. 

2016 Commonwealth Dinner

Last evening the husband and I attended the 2016 Commonwealth Dinner in Richmond.  It was an amazing event and coming to Richmond also gave us an opportunity to see friends - lunch at Can Can, a great French restaurant in Carytown and brunch today at another fun spot - and help support the effort to drag Virginia into the 21st century. We are fortunate that a friend let us use her beautiful, historic home in the Fan District for the weekend while she was out of town.  The photo above is as we headed off to the event with a friend who lives in Richmond.

A highlight of the evening was when out friend Charles Ford was recognized as an Outstanding Virginian.  Among his many activities, Charles has written a book:

A spin-off of his recent research is a pictorial history of LGBT life in Hampton Roads — written with his research partner, Dr. Jeffrey Littlejohn of Sam Houston State University, in Texas, and published in March 2016. It features images of local people and early public events. “It just scratches the surface of available pictures from local archives,” says Charles. Charles used some of these images, blown up to poster size, to celebrate local LGBT history in an exhibition for last year’s Norfolk Pride event, which also featured some panels from the AIDS quilt. As part of the exhibition, Charles led a tour of LGBT history sites in downtown Norfolk. “Most of the actual buildings are gone,” he says, “but it’s interesting to imagine LGBT life in Norfolk in the middle and late twentieth century when Norfolk lived to its long-standing reputation as the ‘wickedest city in America.’”

Again, it was a great evening!

Virginia Equality Bar Association 2016 Spring Symposium

Yours truly with Jim Obergefell

Posting was minimal today since I attended the Virginia Equality Bar Association 2016 Spring Symposium in Richmond at the offices of mega firm, Williams Mullen.  It was a great and informative event that included continuing legal education ("CLE") credits and the chance to meet Jim Obergefell (pictured with me above), lead plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges, the equality marriage case before the Supreme Court that brought marriage equality nationwide, and Paul Smith counsel before the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas which struck down the remaining sodomy statues, including Virginia's animus motivated statute. 

While Virginia still has no anti-discrimination statutes that protect LGBT Virginians, the positive news covered on the employment discrimination front is that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") has now ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act covers BOTH transgender and gay and lesbian employees and that recourse can be sought through the EEOC which can open the doorway for civil litigation against anti-LGBT employers.  I suspect that many Virginia employers do not realize that they are playing with fire when they discriminate against, allow the harassment of, or fire and LGBT employee. While a lengthy process, a few cases against the right employers could prompt a sea change in the mindset of anti-gay bigots who either own or are in the management of businesses.

Over lunch, there was a panel discussion of the issue of LGBT rights and the myth of Christian persecution that lies behind the push for "religious freedom" laws that are in reality nothing more than attempts to grant a special license to discriminate to right wing Christofascists.  Other than the roughly 3 hours in the car to Richmond and back, it was a 100% enjoyable event.

Join Us at the Commonwealth Dinner

Each each year with few exceptions, the husband and I attend The Commonwealth Dinner in Richmond.  The event is the largest fundraising event for Equality Virginia ("EV") which continues to push for full LBGT equality in Virgina and also works to oppose the ugliest legislation proposed by Republican extremists and religious extremists who want to keep LGBT Virginians forever inferior under the law. The event is a lot of fun and is an opportunity to meet many politicians and supporters of equality from across the state.

This year's Commonwealth Dinner is April 16, 2016, and we wanted to let you know some of the details.  First, the keynote speaker will be actor and comedian Carol Leifer.  In addition, EV has also announced the OUTstanding Virginians for 2016 who will be honored at the Dinner.  Locally, our friend Charles Ford – a history professor at Norfolk State University who has done considerable research on local LGBT history and recently published a book on the subject - is among this year's honorees.

Registration is open now and early bird rates end February 28.  I hope you will join us to show your support for EV and your support for LGBT equality.  As one friend noted, "if you’ve never attended the Dinner it is truly a celebratory affair, and it’s encouraging to be in a space with so many people who care about these issues."

To purchase your ticket for the Dinner, click here and when you do be sure to choose us as your table host!  We hope to see readers at the event.  The husband will be sporting a new over the top tuxedo jacket purchased on our most recent trip to Ft. Lauderdale. :)

Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Richmond Have the Most Gay Marriages

This morning, we are at sea on the Carnival Splendor along with 16 friends, half of whom are married same sex couples.   Most, like the husband and I, got married outside  of Virginia prior to the 4th Circuit ruling on October 6, 2014, that made our marriages legal in Virginia.  Since that date, some 3500 other couples have married in Virginia.  As the Richmond Times Dispatch reports, Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Richmond lead the way in the number of same sex couples tying the knot.  Fairfax and Arlington Counties are close behind.  Here are story highlights:

Out of roughly 3,600 gay marriages that have occurred from last October through August of this year, 320 certificates were filed in Norfolk, the most of any courthouse in the state.

Virginia Beach and Richmond followed with 298 and 229, respectively. Rounding out the top five were Fairfax County with 223 and Arlington County with 218.

"The numbers are great," said James Parrish, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group Equality Virginia. "It definitely shows that there are people in the state that wanted to get married."

"We're a little bit baffled because we're about half the size of Virginia Beach," Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk George E. Schaefer said of his office topping the list. "But we are sort of the center."

Schaefer said much of the Virginia Beach population lives closer to the Norfolk courthouse than the courthouse in their own city. There are no residency requirements for marriages in Virginia, which means couples can go to any courthouse to fill out the required paperwork.

John Osterhout, president of Hampton Roads Pride, said his group has worked hard to help make the area an LGBT-friendly place to live.

"As people from all sectors of society have seen that we love our families as much as any straight person, it is harder to harbor negative images of those of us who are LGBT," Osterhout said.

Statewide, 5.27 percent of all marriage certificates in 2015 involve gay couples. The records are current through the end of August. State officials said local clerks were in the process of submitting certificates for September.

So far in 2015, the city of Staunton saw the highest percentage of its marriage licenses go to gay couples, with 11.97 percent. Staunton is followed by Bristol (11.22 percent), the city of Roanoke (11.10 percent), New Kent County (10.17 percent) and Rappahannock County (10 percent).

Somewhat ironically, the lawsuit that successfully overturned Virginia's ban on gay marriage began in the Norfolk courthouse that has now processed the most same-sex marriages.