31st Annual HR Pride Launch

Barry Menser and I with our dear friend Pam Northam (not the best photo of me!).

The husband and I attended the 31st annual Hampton Roads Pride launch event today at Tysinger Motors here in Hampton, Virginia.  As is always the case when Tysinger hosts, the event was over the top - especially when  surrounded by beautiful Mercedes Benz's and Audi's - and I suspect new levels of pledges to fund the HP Pride event in Norfolk's Town Point Park were achieved.  Despite the last week of political turmoil the event host, the First Lady of Virginia and our very dear friend, Pam Northam, was in attendance.  In addition to setting new records of sponsorship being achieved  - the City of Norfolk again pledged $50,000 - many new sponsors were in attendance as well. 

Other than Harbor Fest (always the first weekend in June), Pride Fest is Norfolk's now largest festival with 30,000 people in attendance.  It is the largest pride event in Virginia and is increasingly drawing cities in Hampton Roads to work collaboratively.  Today, we had members of Congress in attendance, members of the Virginia legislature, and elected officials from Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Hampton in attendance.

Interestingly, the heavy hitters in the Hampton Roads LGBT community are heavily supportive of Ralph Northam, so Virginia Democrats kissing the butts of DC insiders (Tim Kaine and Mark Warner have major fence mending to do) and would be Democratic presidential candidates may be in for a rude awakening come November 2019, and in 2020, when they want support from the Hampton Roads LGBT community.  I even received thank you's from an number of major players for all my vocal  support of Northam.  Julian Castro, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and even former Virginia Governor Terry McAullife may have irreparably burned some bridges in their rush to judgment against Ralph Northam, one of the most decent and genuine politicians I have ever known.  I certainly will not support any of these individuals other than perhaps McAulliffe who would have to do some truly major acts of penance to earn my forgiveness.

Pam Northam at the 2019HR Pride launch party.

Do You Want Trump to Have Your Personal Data?

The other day I posted about Governor Terry McAuliffe's response to Der Trumpenführer's disturbing request for voting data from all 50 states that included social security numbers, home addresses, driver's license numbers, party affiliation and other non-public details.  The effort is part of Trump's effort to inflate the myth that voting fraud is rampant and a threat to our democracy.  Of course, meanwhile, Russian interference in our elections is "fake news" and a non-issue in Trump world.  And never mind that numerous studies have shown that cases of true voting fraud are almost nonexistent.  Many believe the real agenda behind the effort is to put forth more efforts to suppress voting by "those people" - blacks and minorities and other reliable Democrat voters - to aid Republicans facing demographic changes that could end their chances at continued electoral victories.  I for one no NOT want the malignant, bullying, vulgar, mentally disturbed individual in the White House to have personal data on me or my my loved ones. I have far more faith in the Commonwealth of Virginia (despite its faults) to look out for my welfare, especially when one looks at the voter suppressing histories of some of Der Trumpenführer's commission appointees.   Thankfully, at least 25 states have said they will not cooperate with the bogus commission.  Three stories in the Washington Post look at the situation.  Here are highlights from the first:

The chair of President Trump's Election Integrity Commission has penned a letter to all 50 states requesting their full voter-roll data, including the name, address, date of birth, party affiliation, last four Social Security number digits and voting history back to 2006 of potentially every voter in the state.

States began reacting to the letter on Thursday afternoon. "I have no intention of honoring this request," said Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia in a statement. "Virginia conducts fair, honest, and democratic elections, and there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Virginia."

Connecticut's Secretary of State, Denise Merrill, said she would "share publicly-available information with the Kobach Commission while ensuring that the privacy of voters is honored by withholding protected data." She added, however, that Kobach "has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas" and that "given Secretary Kobach's history we find it very difficult to have confidence in the work of this Commission."

Under federal law, each state must maintain a central file of registered voters. States collect different amounts of information on voters.

In May, Trump created a commission to investigate alleged acts of voter fraud after he claimed, without evidence, that 3 million to 5 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally in the 2016 election. The commission is chaired by Kobach, who is the Kansas secretary of state and a voter-fraud hard-liner.

Advocates for voting rights and civil liberties are also sounding alarms over the letter. “The concern is that this is going to be used to justify regressive and disenfranchising federal law,” Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the democracy program at New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice, said in an interview.

Vanita Gupta, chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and former head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, said on Twitter that the letter is “laying the groundwork for voter suppression, plain & simple.”

Academics who have studied the issue for decades say that voter fraud — particularly of the type that strict voter-identification laws championed by Kobach and others are intended to combat — is vanishingly rare and that voter-ID requirements are a burdensome solution to a practically nonexistent problem. A federal judge ruled that some of Kobach's proposed ID requirements constituted a “mass denial of a fundamental constitutional right.”

 The second piece here looks at the growing reaction of various states:

While the Trump administration has said it is just requesting public information, the letters met with swift — and sometimes defiant — rejection. By Friday, 25 states were partially or entirely refusing to provide the requested information; some said state laws prohibit releasing certain details about voters, while others refused to provide any information because of the commission’s makeup and backstory. 

“This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November,” Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said in a statement. “At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.”

California, a state Trump singled out for “serious voter fraud,” also refused to participate. Alex Padilla, the California secretary of state, said providing data “would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud.”

“It looks like they’re putting together a database of who people voted for,” said Jason Kander, a former Missouri secretary of state who runs the nonprofit group Let America Vote. “Democrat, Republican, independent, everybody should be outraged by that. This is from the same people, from Kris Kobach to Donald Trump, who’ve tried to make it harder for people to vote, and this seems like a step in the process. If the Obama administration had asked for this, Kris Kobach would be holding a press conference outside the Capitol to denounce it.” Experts described the request as unprecedented in scope, a recipe for potential voter suppression and troubling for the privacy issues it raises.

“This is an attempt on a grand scale to purport to match voter rolls with other information in an apparent effort to try and show that the voter rolls are inaccurate and use that as a pretext to pass legislation that will make it harder for people to register to vote,” said Rick Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California at Irvine.

Hasen said he has “no confidence” in whatever results the committee produces. He said the commission and its request create a number of concerns, including that it is an election group created by one candidate for office — Trump, who already is campaigning for reelection — and headed by Pence, another political candidate.

“It’s just a recipe for a biased and unfair report,” Hasen said. . . . . . Experts also expressed concerns about Trump’s appointment of Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official and a longtime voter integrity advocate, to the commission. Gupta said that he, like Kobach, has “had a single-minded agenda to diminish voter participation and to fight voting rights, and to make voting harder.”

Other states have said that they do plan to hand over information, albeit less than the broad sweep outlined in the letters. Wisconsin’s elections commission administrator said that the state would give the public information for the standard $12,500 fee, but was not allowed to release other details such as dates of birth. Ohio Secretary of State Jon A. Husted, a Republican, said his state would be handing over most of the requested information — noting that it is publicly available — though he said they would not provide portions of Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers because those are not.

The third piece here, underscores the why this effort is troubling, including the fact that the system the commission chair favors has come up with 200 false targeting of double voter registration for every one that is accurate.  Do the math and it becomes apparent that large numbers of people could find themselves wrongfully disqualified to vote.  Here are excerpts:

In Kansas, Kobach championed the use of Crosscheck, a multistate database of voter registration information that authorities use to check whether voters are registered in two states.

Researchers have found that Crosscheck's matching algorithms are highly inaccurate. A recent working paper by researchers at Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Microsoft found that Crosscheck's algorithm returns about 200 false positives for every one legitimate instance of double registration it finds.

“We're concerned about unlawful voter purging, which has been something that Kris Kobach has been leading the charge,” said Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the Justice Department's civil rights division.

An expansion of the Crosscheck system would be “a recipe for massive amounts of error,” according to elections expert Justin Levitt of Loyola Law School. “When you've got hundreds of millions of records, and thousands of John Smiths, trying to figure out which of them are your John Smith without making a mistake is well nigh impossible.” “This commission has been, from the beginning, an effort to sell Trump's lie that he won the popular vote,” Ho said. “Kobach's echoed that sentiment himself on camera. Now they've set up this commission that's going to create phony findings to support that lie.”

Some of Kobach's voter ID requirements have been struck down in federal court, with one federal judge ruling that they constituted “mass denial of a fundamental constitutional right.” And earlier this month, a federal judge fined Kobach $1,000 for “presenting misleading arguments in a voting-related lawsuit,” according to Politico.
 One final red flag in the commission's request, according to Levitt, is the inclusion of data on voters' party affiliation. While states are allowed to maintain this information, the federal Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits the federal government from keeping records of voters' party affiliation except in rare circumstances, Levitt said.

Levitt said the Privacy Act was enacted following the Watergate scandal and concerns about Richard Nixon collecting personal information on American voters.

Urge your state officials to tell Trump's commission that it can put its request for information where the sunshine doesn't shine. 

McAuliffe Politely Tells Trump Commission on Non-Existent Voter Fraud to Shove It

One of the perennial claims of Republicans is that voter fraud is rampant.  The goal, of course, is to fabricate a justification to implement voter ID laws and other impediments in order to disenfranchise those likely to vote against Republicans.  Meanwhile, numerous legitimate studies have found that voter fraud is very rare and, indeed, the chances of being struck by lightening far exceed the likelihood of voter fraud occurring (another good article is here). Der Trumpenführer, with absolutely no supporting evidence, has claimed that millions voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election - hence why Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.  To add legitimacy to this lie - and titillate his racist and white supremacist base - Der  Trumpenführer, established a "presidential election committee on election integrity" to investigate his imagined voter fraud.  Naturally, no such commission has been established to look into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.  Today, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe politely told Trump that Virginia would not participate in the charade or turn over personal information on Virginia voters as demanded by Der  Trumpenführer.  Here are highlights from a press release from McAuliffe's office:

“Today the Commonwealth and the other 49 states received a lengthy request from Kris Kobach, the Vice Chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, requesting a list of all registered Virginia voters, the last four digits of their social security numbers, their addresses, date of birth, political affiliation, and their voting history. The Vice Chair’s letter also contained a list of vague inquiries about the election policies and laws of the Commonwealth.

“I have no intention of honoring this request. Virginia conducts fair, honest, and democratic elections, and there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Virginia. This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November. At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.

“The only irregularity in the 2016 presidential election centered around Russian tampering, a finding that has been confirmed by 17 of our intelligence agencies and sworn testimony delivered to several congressional committees. In 131 days Virginia’s Department of Elections will again conduct a statewide election for the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, as well as 100 House of Delegates races and numerous other positions. I’m not going to divert resources that could potentially compromise that important work to enable this politically motivated and silly posturing.”

Kudos to Governor McAuliffe and shame on Trump and Republicans who continue to fabricate and disseminate the lies that voter fraud is a problem.  The biggest problem facing the nation at the moment is the Trump/Pence regime and the malignant narcissist in the White House. 

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.  

McAuliffe Promises to Veto GOP License to Discriminate Bill

As with Republicans at the national level, the Virginia Republican Party is forever prostituting itself to Christofascists - led in Virginia by The Family Foundation, a hate group in all but formal designation - and seeking to legalize anti-LGBT discrimination.  True, Bob Marshall's "bath room bill" was killed by Republicans in committee, but that was more over concern for the economic backlash that might occur given the experience of neighboring North Carolina.  But true to form, a falsely named and unnecessary "religious freedom" bill has passed the Virginia General Assembly on a party line vote that would allow legalized discrimination against LGBT Virginians.  Thankfully, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has vowed to veto the bill.  GayRVA has details.  Here are highlights: 

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vowed to veto any bill that discriminates against LGBTQ people at a reception hosted Tuesday night by Equality Virginia.

McAuliffe has vetoed 71 bills during his two years as governor, none of which have been overturned.

“It’s not about doing the most vetoes of any governor in Virginia history,” McAuliffe said. “We’re stopping people from doing things that discriminate against people’s basic rights.”

Democrats criticized Republicans for approving SB 1324, which passed the Senate on a 21-19 party-line vote Tuesday.

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Charles Carrico, R-Grayson. Supporters describe it as a “religious freedom” bill, saying it would protect people and organizations that oppose same-sex marriages. However, Democrats and advocates say the measure would give people and organizations the right to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples.

“Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity has absolutely no place in the commonwealth, and I am disappointed that a Republican-majority in the Senate approved SB 1324 today,” said Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor this year.

“I recently took a seven-city tour across the commonwealth that ended in Salem, where I was proud to welcome the NCAA soccer tournament. That championship was relocated from North Carolina, as was the NBA All-Star game and major businesses. To be economically competitive, we have to be open and welcoming to all. I will continue to advocate for equality for all.”

“It’s not just about the rare lawsuit,” Levine said. “It’s about having people be confident enough that if they do choose to come out, they’re not going to be kicked out in the street, they’re not going to lose their employment, they’re not going to lose their job.”

“The only way we’re going to get fair treatment, gay and lesbian people, is to let the people speak out. And it’s not going to be through this gerrymandering system that we have here. The system is rigged – it truly is,” Sickles said.

Gerrymandering has allowed Republicans to maintain a disproportionate number of seats in the General Assembly and has allowed backward rural areas to have far too much say in public policy in Virginia.  Both gerrymandering and LGBT discrimination need to end.

Virginia Joins Federal Court Challenge to Trump's Muslim Travel Ban

As the legal challenges to and wide spread condemnation of Donald Trump, a/k/a, Der Fuhrer's continue to grow, especially in the wake of Trump's firing of the acting Attorney General for refusing to enforce his illegal action, the Commonwealth of Virginia has now joined the expanding number federal court challenges.  Both Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (pictured above) and Governor Terry McAuliffe back Virginia's challenge which is adversely impacting Virginia businesses, university faculty members, and, of course, university students.  The Washington Post looks at this development and the manner in which the rights of those already holding valid visas have been trampled.  Here are article highlights:

The Commonwealth of Virginia intervened Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for two Yemeni brothers who arrived at Dulles International Airport on Saturday and were quickly put on a return flight to Ethiopia in response to President Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Tareq and Ammar Aqel Mohammed Aziz had been approved for permanent residence status in the United States, where they planned to join their father. Their attorneys say they were coerced, with no legal counsel present, to sign papers they didn’t understand, giving up visas they had worked for years to secure.

Fifty or sixty other legal residents were similarly detained at Dulles, the attorneys allege, saying that many were likewise unfairly persuaded to sign away their right to stay. A lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in California reported similar scenarios at Los Angeles International Airport.

The lawsuit, in federal court in Virginia, is among several filed across the country challenging the president’s ban.

At a news conference Tuesday, Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) called Trump’s executive order “sweeping, poorly understood and chaotically implemented,” and said it “led to the violation of the constitutional and statutory rights of numerous residents of Virginia.”

He justified Virginia’s interest in joining the lawsuit by saying the executive order affects “numerous” residents of the state, especially students and staff at colleges and universities. As a result, he said, the state would face difficulty in attracting students and faculty, and would suffer financial damage.

Herring said that more than 100 students at Virginia Commonwealth University alone are either unable to leave to visit their families or return to campus from overseas.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who stood beside Herring for the announcement, said he had been “receiving calls from folks throughout the commonwealth” since the executive order last Friday. “I have been notified by scores of companies who are now worried about their employees,” he said. “This is not the United States of America that we know.”

[W]hen [Tareq and Ammar Aqel Mohammed Aziz] they arrived at Dulles, the brothers were handcuffed and their immigration paperwork was seized, their attorneys said. They were given documents to sign and allegedly told that if they did not, they would be removed from the country and barred from coming back for five years. They were not allowed to see legal counsel.

Under pressure, their attorneys said, they signed the documents without realizing that by doing so they had renounced their legal U.S. status. Agents stamped “canceled” on their visas and told them to get on a flight at their own expense to Ethi­o­pia, where they had stopped on their way from Yemen, the attorneys said.

On Saturday night, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued an order guaranteeing access to attorneys for all legal permanent residents detained at Dulles and barring the removal of those residents for seven days. But the Aziz brothers had already been sent to Ethi­o­pia. And in their most recent court filing, their attorneys said that after the judge’s order was issued, customs officials at the airport continued to bar access on the grounds that the people they had stopped were in “processing,” not “detention.”

“The full impact of President Trump’s ban remains unclear because the government has not complied fully and transparently with a valid temporary restraining order issued by a federal court,” Herring said. 

I continue to feel like I am watching things unfold much as 1930's Germans who opposed Hitler observed their nation descend into dictatorship and the trampling on civil rights become the norm.   

Has Ego Thrown Uncertainty Into Virginia's Gubernatorial Race?

Lt. Gov. Northam

Seemingly out of nowhere a possible wrench has been thrown into Virginia Democrats' plan for an orderly, uncontested race for the party's 2017 gubernatorial nomination.  One term Congressman Tom Perriello, who only served from 2009 to 2011 before losing to a right wing ideologue due to his ultra-liberal voting record and less than effective campaign, is posed to jump into the race for the Democrat nomination.  It is difficult to adequately stress just how critical it is for a Democrat to succeed Terry McAuliffe as Virginia's next governor so that there is at least somewhat of the firewall against the most egregious initiatives of the Republican Party of Virginia  such as Del. Bob Marshall's horrific HB 1612 that seeks to out do North Carolina's infamous HB2.  None of this seemingly matters to Perriello who is basically unknown outside of his former district and certain liberal organization circles and could throw the Governor's mansion to the Republicans if he creates a contentious and money wasting contested primary.  The husband and I - and most LGBT activists we know - are firmly behind Lt. Governor Ralph Northam's candidacy as are leading Democrats in Virginia.  The New York Times looks at Perriello's apparently ego driven move to harm Democrats in 2017.  Here are highlights:

Tom Perriello, the former congressman from Virginia, is making a surprise entry into his state’s governor’s race, disrupting Democrats’ well-laid plans in what promises to be the most-watched election in the country this year.

Mr. Perriello on Wednesday telephoned Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, who had been widely presumed to be the party’s nominee, to tell him he was entering the race, according to three Democrats directly familiar with the conversation.

Mr. Perriello, a State Department official who is close to President Obama, is expected to announce his intention on Thursday to compete in the June 13 Democratic primary. He did not respond to a voice mail and text message. Mr. Northam could not be reached, either.

By entering the race to succeed Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who is limited to a single term, Mr. Perriello will hinder Mr. McAuliffe’s effort to avert a contentious primary. Leading Democrats have sought to clear the field for Mr. Northam, hoping to give him a head start in fund-raising and organization, while at least three Republicans vie for the nomination.

A run by Mr. Perriello will expose the tensions between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party in Virginia, which is increasingly dominant in a once-conservative state. Much of the state’s Democratic leadership is already lined up for Mr. Northam, and Mr. Perriello’s unexpected move made them to scramble to respond.

A senior Virginia Democrat, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Wednesday evening that Mr. McAuliffe would emphatically reaffirm his support for the lieutenant governor. Aides to Virginia’s two United States senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, said they would not reconsider their support for Mr. Northam.

For decades, Virginia Democrats have taken care to distinguish themselves from their more liberal national party and present themselves as prudent centrists. But having carried Virginia in the last three presidential elections and controlling every statewide office, some Democrats are hungry to elevate progressives.

“Tom is a very capable and popular person who served in Congress very well,” said former Representative L. F. Payne Jr., who once represented the same district as Mr. Perriello and now backs Mr. Northam. “I think that Ralph, though, is well-prepared for the job, and Democrats feel good about him as our candidate. It’s awfully late for anybody else to think about getting in.”

Neither Mr. Perriello nor Mr. Northam is well known to Virginia voters. Mr. Northam would enjoy a substantial financial advantage and the support of Mr. McAuliffe, who is popular with Democrats. The governor, in fact, is hosting a fund-raiser at his Northern Virginia home this weekend for Mr. Northam.

But Mr. Perriello is well liked among some liberal activists and could gain support with the sort of highly engaged voters who show up in low-turnout summer primaries. To do so, though, he will have to fend off questions from the left about some of his stances on cultural issues. He was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in his 2010 campaign and cast some votes against abortion.

Republicans, meanwhile, have their own primary battle. Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman; President-elect Donald J. Trump’s onetime state campaign chairman, Corey Stewart; and State Senator Frank Wagner, from the Tidewater region.

Perriello needs to withdraw from the contest.  Meanwhile, our home is available to Ralph Northam any time he needs it for a fundraiser. 

Virginia Makes A Push for LGBT Tourism Dollars

With Virginia being hammered by reduced federal government spending, one of the pushes of Gov. Terry McAuliffe has been to pursue the LGBT tourism dollar.  Indeed, McAuliffe has set up and LGBT Tourism Commission (on which some of our friends currently serve) and, unlike members of the Virginia GOP who continue to prostitute themselves to Christian hate groups and extremists, he realizes that being welcoming to all makes good business sense.  A piece in the Daily Press looks at this common sense effort that more parts of Virginia need to embrace (after years of lagging, Norfolk has realized the attractiveness of welcoming the pink dollar).  Of course, the current anti-LGBT toxicity reigning in North Carolina makes Virginia destinations look even more attractive to many living in the mid-Atlantic region.  Here are highlights:

RICHMOND – You can now buy "Virginia is for Lovers" trucker hats with a gay pride flag incorporated into the state's iconic tourism pitch.

The hat, and other state swag, is part of a new branding effort targeting LGBT tourists. There's a new web page highlighting events and destinations that have self-identified as LGBT friendly and a new resource guide for businesses looking to cash in.

The Virginia Tourism Corporation rolled out the campaign heading into this weekend, just ahead of the Virginia Pridefest in Richmond. But this is no limited-time event.

"This is going to be fully integrated in all our marketing, from top to bottom," tourism corporation spokeswoman Caroline Logan said. "This will be going on forever as far as we're concerned."

Eight other states have done something similar, but Virginia is the first one in the South, unless you count Florida. The campaign has been two years in the making, started by a push from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who made clear from before he took office that he wants everyone to visit Virginia, and to leave lots money.

LGBT tourists – and that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – make up 10 percent of the U.S. tourism market, Logan said. They spend somewhere around $57 billion a year on travel and tourism, she said.

"They travel more and they stay longer and they spend more money," she said.

Logan said campaign feedback has been positive, but the effort is bound to be controversial for some.

Businesses and events have to opt into this particular marketing campaign, just as they do for other targeted state campaigns. The database of places to stay included 120 locations on rollout. Among other things, the website features a picture of McAuliffe marrying a lesbian couple.

In addition to the web page and database, the tourism corporation has created an LGBT Tourism Resource Guide for state businesses in the tourism industry, which generated an estimated $23 billion in spending last year in the state.

As noted, here's why courting the LGBT tourism dollar makes sense: "they travel more, stay longer and spend more money."  Only a fool - or religious extremist of GOP political whore - would not welcome that kind of traveler. 

Hampton Roads' Reliance on Military Spending Comes Home to Roost

Norfolk Naval Base

For many decades the Hampton Roads region has blindly relied on U.S. military spending to power the local economy.  On a larger scale, Virginia has made the same mistake, but nowhere to the extent of Hampton Roads.  Far too little effort was made to attract other businesses and to diversify the local economy and, as a result, for years there has been a brain drain of college educated young adults who often choose to go to New York, Atlanta or Washington, D.C. for not only a more vibrant economy, but also for more socially diverse and welcoming to all communities.  Now, with government and military spending cuts the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the results of such shortsightedness and until recently social conservatism.  Here are highlights:

NORFOLK — The hammerhead crane hangs over the shipyards here, a pistol-shaped steel cage that could lift 350 tons in its day. It is rusting, its power system has been disconnected, and the U.S. military has no plans to ever employ it again. . . . . The crane is obsolete, built to lift turrets onto battleships the Navy no longer deploys. But its fate embodies the economic uncertainty that has swamped one of the nation’s most military-dependent regions.

For three-quarters of a century, the Hampton Roads area rose and fell with the federal defense budget, always confident that any cutbacks would prove temporary. Under President Obama, a new reality has sunk in. Spending cuts have stalled growth in the region, pushed thousands of blue-collar workers out of good-paying jobs and forced civic leaders to contend with a once-unmentionable question: how to survive if the military spigot never opens again.

The Norfolk area has suffered disproportionately, even among defense communities, from decisions by Obama and Congress to reduce the size and composition of military budgets. Economists and union leaders say that is because Hampton Roads has been late to follow the lead of other regions, including the Washington area, that took steps over the past decades to incubate private industries and balance out their reliance on defense.

Norfolk has become a national outlier, saddled with a workforce that is less educated than many comparable communities and an economy that has depended too much, for too long, on government.

Communities across America have struggled with economic transition in recent decades . . . Many of them have followed a similar playbook. They use tax breaks and other government incentives to attract clusters of businesses in knowledge-based industries such as technology. And they woo entrepreneurial, high-skilled workers who might work at those companies — or start their own businesses.

Norfolk had not launched such an effort, in earnest, until 2012. . . . They need one now. Defense spending has fallen quickly from making up more than half of the Hampton Roads economy to less than 40 percent.

Over the past two years, nearly 4,000 manufacturing workers in the region have lost their jobs, according to the Labor Department. Layoffs from defense contractors, including 700 members of the Boilermakers union who were given pink slips less than a month before Christmas, came as the Navy reduced spending on ship building and maintenance.
The cuts have drained buying power from the local economy. Compounding the problem, there are nearly 30,000 fewer military jobs in the region today than a decade ago, and the remaining members of the military stationed here have seen their pay curbed in recent years.

Federal defense contract spending in the region was $9.4 billion in 2015, a $1.5 billion drop from the previous year — and lower than 2009 levels, even before adjusting for inflation. . . . Norfolk lost more businesses in the economic recovery than any other major city in the nation, according to census data compiled by the Economic Innovation Group.

The debate over how to transition the region’s economy is not far along. The local chamber of commerce and a nonprofit economic development are seeking to identify “clusters” of industries that could carry the region going forward and have preliminarily found a few, including biotechnology and advanced manufacturing. But their report is not finalized, and local leaders are only beginning the process of figuring out how to seed the growth of those industries.

Regional officials do not hold much hope of defense spending surging again, at least not in a way that will lift Hampton Roads. Today’s Navy is shifting focus to the Pacific Ocean, which means more action for West Coast shipyards and less here. Across its branches, the military is spending more on information technology, which benefits higher-tech regions such as the Washington area.

Compounding the problem is the backwardness of the Republican controlled General Assembly that seeks to inflict right wing Christian beliefs on all of Virginia and which will not even take climate change seriously even as it threatens some of the major military bases in Hampton Roads.  Since taking office, Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe has been on a mission to attract new businesses and industries to Virginia and argued that Virginia must be welcoming to all.  So far that message has fallen on deaf ears with the Virginia GOP. 

Virginia Republicans’ Racist Project

GOP Senator Tommy Norment, author of racist plan

Perhaps being a gay man makes me more conscious of discrimination since one never knows when one will encounter a homophobic bigot who cannot see beyond who I love to see me as a full and complete human. Thus, I am continually appalled when I see those who hold no shred of empathy for other people even if their skin color may differ.  Here in Virginia, the Virginia GOP not only lacks empathy for minorities.  The party's continuing agenda is to disenfranchise as many minority voters as possible.  Given the unequal rate at which minorities are arrested and convicted of crimes that cause them to forfeit their voting rights, it is no surprise that the Virginia GOP is strenuously opposing the restitution of voting rights to former felons who have served their time and paid any applicable fines.  Donald Trump may have helped to bring the Republican Party's growing racism into full view, but that racism has been alive and well in the Virginia GOP.  A editorial in the Washington Post looks at the Virginia GOP's racist agenda.  GOP State Senator Tommy Norment deservedly has a new one ripped for him.  Here are excerpts:

IN ABOUT 40 states, people convicted of serious crimes regain their voting rights upon discharge from prison or completion of parole. In a handful of others, convicts either are never disenfranchised or automatically regain their rights after a waiting period. These rules amount to an American consensus on what constitutes a reasonable and humane approach to redemption in a modern democracy.

In just four states are felons permanently barred from voting absent action by the governor. And in one of them, Virginia, lawmakers are considering an even more restrictive regime that would forever foreclose the possibility of redemption for tens of thousands of citizens.

For this essentially racist project, Virginians can credit the ethically challenged majority leader of Virginia’s state Senate, Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City). He filed legislation last week that would bar people convicted of violent felonies, in Virginia disproportionately African Americans, from ever having their voting rights restored.

It’s impossible to say precisely which offenses would trigger permanent disenfranchisement under Mr. Norment’s proposed constitutional amendment, which would leave it to the GOP-dominated legislature to define violent felonies. However, they might easily include categories of assault or drug crimes that might earn a young convict a few years in prison, followed by a lifetime banned from the voting booth.

Mr. Norment’s amendment would leave Virginia as an extreme outlier in terms of restoration of rights. It would strip the governor of any role in the process by automatically restoring voting rights for nonviolent felons — a category that would also be defined by lawmakers — after they had completed their sentences and paid court costs and restitution, which often amount to thousands of dollars.

For Mr. Norment, the bill is retribution against Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who has infuriated Republicans by attempting to restore voting rights to some 200,000 ex-convicts, nearly half of them African Americans and many of them disenfranchised decades after the completion of their sentences.

Before Virginia tightened its laws in response to a scandal involving former governor Robert F. McDonnell (R), Mr. Norment was notorious as the recipient of lavish hunting trips paid for by corporate bigwigs seeking favorable legislative treatment. Last year, it was reported that he was interviewed by the FBI for conduct arising from his personal relationship with a female lobbyist whose firm regularly pushed for legislation that he voted for and, in two cases, personally sponsored; he neither recused himself nor disclosed the relationship in a timely way.

Mr. Norment, who was charged with no crime, admitted to “exceedingly poor judgment” in the affair. Maybe his voting rights should be rescinded.

Bobby Scott Calls Out Republicans Attacking McAuliffe's Restoration of Voting Rights

As Virginia's population becomes more urban - with urban areas being much more liberal than the hinterland regions - the Republican Party of Virginia has done all it can to block the restoration of voting rights for felons who have done their time and paid their fines.  In the vast majority of states the restoration of voting rights happens automatically.  Not so in Virginia.  Why?  Because convicted felons in Virginia are disproportionately members of racial minorities - minorities that tend to vote liberal/Democrat.  Indeed, Virginia Republicans even opposed former Governor Bob McDonnell's effort to restore voting rights - one of McDonnell's few progressive acts - because even a small increase in minority voters might tip some districts from the GOP column to that of Democrats.  This GOP concern is heighten by the reality that the population of the urban cities and counties of Northern Virginia, greater Richmond, and Hampton Roads now exceeds that of the rest of Virginia combined.  It was no surprise, therefore, that the Virginia GOP went ballistic over Governor McAuliffe's executive order that restore voting rights to thousands and thousands of former felons, many of who are now productive members of society and good citizens.  As the Virginian Pilot reports, Congressman Bobby Scott - who is my representative and who the husband and I know - blasted the bigotry of Virginia Republicans.  Here are story excerpts:

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott struck hard Wednesday at Republicans who accused Gov. Terry McAuliffe of trying to help the Democrats win the presidency when he issued an executive order last week restoring voting and other civil rights to 206,000 felons.

State Republican leaders have said McAuliffe’s executive order last week that allows felons who have served their sentences and probation to vote, run for office or serve on juries was a way to register more voters for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election. They also objected to his restoring rights to those who committed violent crimes.

Scott, an attorney and civil liberties expert, argues the governor is correcting a suppression effort that goes back 115 years.

“The right to vote is a right. It’s not a privilege. You have Republicans who at every opportunity are trying to deny people the right to vote,” he said in a conference call with reporters.

He noted Virginia’s ban on felons voting originated in the early 1900s as part of a package of new state laws designed to suppress blacks. Those restrictions, including the now-banned literacy tests and poll taxes, at the time had forced the removal of 85 percent of black voters from the rolls.

McAuliffe’s order could return to the voting rolls as much as 20 percent of the state’s black population that have felony convictions, Scott said.

“If there is such an advantage to Democrats, it means the Republicans were enjoying a huge advantage all these years because they could deny 20 percent of the African American population the right to vote,” the Newport News Democrat said.

Virginia remains one of four states that strip voting rights from felons for life after their convictions. Before McAuliffe’s action, felons could get the right restored only by individually applying to the governor. Governors, both Republicans and Democrats, have restored rights to thousands in recent decades.

The mindset behind Massive Resistance in the 1960's is a live and well in some factions in Virginia, especially the Republican Party of Virginia which has become increasingly racists and homophobic since I resigned from the party many years ago.  I should note, however, that the growing racism and religious extremism directly corresponds with the rise of the Christofascists in the Virginia GOP. 

Virginia Senate Fails to Override Veto Of "Religious Freedom" Bill

One of the main things currently protecting Virginia from the Republican/Christofascist extremism taking place next door in North Carolina is Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe who vetoed the falsely names "religious freedom" bill that cleared the Virginia General Assembly.  This week, the Virginia Senate failed to override McAuliffe's veto which means true religious freedom - as opposed to special rights for Christian extremists - is safe until next year.  GayRVA looks at this important vote.  Here are highlights:

Yesterday’s veto session stretched late into the night, but the only LGBTQ-related bill which made it to the Governor’s desk stayed on the floor as the Senate failed to override McAuliffe’s veto.

SB 41, sponsored by Sen. Carrico (top image, left), aimed to “Provides that no person shall be (i) required to participate in the solemnization of any marriage or (ii) subject to any penalty, any civil liability, or any other action by the Commonwealth, or its political subdivisions or representatives or agents, solely on account of such person’s belief, speech, or action in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed the bill based on these fears, as well as how the bill could be received by businesses or people hoping to visit the state.

“Any legitimate protections afforded by Senate Bill 41 are duplicative of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States;” wrote McAuliffe in a statement sent out after vetoing the bill in late March. He also pointed to Virginia’s long-held Religious Freedoms Act which already allows religious leaders and orgs like priests and churches to deny services if it violates their beliefs.

“Any additional protections are styled in a manner that prefers one religious viewpoint—that marriage can only validly exist between a man and a woman—over all other viewpoints,” he said. “Such a dynamic is not only unconstitutional, it equates to discrimination under the guise of religious freedom.”

But yesterday, Sen. Carrico sought to defend his bill stressing it would “strengthen [those]  protections and protect them from any charges if some were too arise.” . . . . Carrico found few vocal allies on the Senate floor yesterday, however Sen. Adam Ebbin (top image, middle), Virginia’s only openly gay Senator, spoke in opposition to the measure, echoing Gov. McAuliffe’s concerns.

“This bill would provide a license to discriminate against same-sex couples and their families and could be seen to allow discrimination by schools or hospitals that are religiously affiliated,” Ebbin said, noting the bill offers protections to those who don’t believe in or support same-sex marriage, but does little for fans of marriage equality.

“It offers no protections for the law of the land, for marriage equality,” he said. “Similar legislation has been bad for business in other state and I would contend that passing this bill would be bad for business in Virginia.”

Unfortunately, hate groups such as The Family Foundation - a theocratic loving organization with strong white supremacist undercurrents - will continue to push for special rights and the subversion of religious freedom for all Virginians.  The goal remains to make Christian extremists so politically and socially toxic that the Virginia GOP will be forced to cease its self-prostitution to these hate mongers.  

Lt. Governor Northam: Anti-LGBT bill Threatens Virginia’s Economy

Ralph Northam speaking at a friend's home

As North Carolina Republicans are hopefully learning, hate and bigotry are not good for a state's economy.  In an op-ed the Virginian Pilot, Lt. Governor Ralph Northam makes that very argument and states that Virginia GOP/Christofascist efforts to enact similar animus based bills in Virginia threatens the states economy.  In my view, the Christofascists and their political whores in the Republican Party at all levels need to be defeated and their beliefs need to be thrown on the trash heap of history where they can join beliefs that supported slavery, segregation and so many other horrors brought to mankind by religion.  Here are op-ed highlights:

A governor’s priorities and values make an enormous difference in the direction of a state. Recent events have shown us that having the right governor can make all the difference.

Last month, Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed Senate Bill 41. The bill would discriminate against thousands of Virginians and send the absolute wrong message to current and prospective employers who want their employees and their families to live in a welcoming and inclusive commonwealth.

North Carolina’s Republican governor recently signed that state’s House Bill 2, one of the most anti-LGBT laws in the country, and an upsetting response to a non-discrimination law passed in the city of Charlotte.

The negative response has been overwhelming, with more than 90 major employers calling on Gov. Pat McCrory to repeal the bill.

The response has already caused McCrory to backpedal, signing an executive order to prevent state employees from being fired for being gay or transgender. His action, however, stops far short of correcting the ills of HB2.

I cannot imagine why any member of the LGBT community would want to visit a state with such backwards legislation.

Why does this matter in Virginia? As a member of McAuliffe’s Economic Development Partnership and the Virginia Tourism Corporation, I work hard to make sure that Virginia is business-friendly and welcoming to all. The passage of SB41 through our General Assembly sends a signal to major companies, CEOs, and talented workers that Virginia could be the next North Carolina if we’re not careful.

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson said “As a global hospitality leader and multistate employer, these legislative skirmishes can be frustrating and costly. We still see a patchwork of gaps in state and local nondiscrimination laws that add complications and uncertainty for our people and local managers. It dismays many of us that, in 29 states, people are still at risk of losing their job just for being gay or transgender. Predictability in nondiscrimination laws would be welcome.”

Businesses should be interested in serving the most customers the best product possible, not figuring out the gender or relationship status of people who walk in the door. When Virginia offers a pro-business, all-are-welcome environment, we are better able to compete with other states.

Especially in light of federal budget cuts and sequestration, we have to continue to be innovative and forward thinking to grow our economy. This type of legislation hurts our efforts to attract new businesses and increase jobs, and that is why inclusion will continue to be one of my top priorities.

That means recruiting new businesses and supporting current businesses in order to bring good-paying jobs and top talent. That means providing basic services that every citizen needs in order to contribute to our common good. And that means ensuring that every Virginian has a fair shot to reach their full potential.

I will fight to keep Virginia focused on these priorities. I urge the General Assembly to sustain the governor’s veto of SB41 so that companies, families and the entire country knows that Virginia is open for business and welcoming to all.

In my view, conservative Christianity is a virulent cancer on society that needs to be eradicated,  If one over the course of history, I believe Christianity - especially conservative strains - have brought more harm than benefit to the world.  Now, conservative Christianity is a main force seeking to drag America backward in time and to grant unconstitutional special privileges to those motivated by hate and bigotry and who embrace ignorance and superstition rather than knowledge and science. 

Governor Terry McAuliffe Vetoes Anti-Gay License to Discriminate Bill

Proving yet again that elections matter, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe kept his word and vetoed an anti-gay bill passed by the Republican controlled Virginia General Assembly that would have granted special rights to Christofascists who sought to exempt themselves from non-discrimination laws on the basis of claimed religious belief.  The bill was one of the priority pieces of legislation of The Family Foundation, a viciously anti-gay, anti-modernity "family values" organization.  In vetoing the animus motivated bill, McAuliffe noted that such license to discriminate laws are bad for business - not to mention, unconstitutional - as North Carolina is finding out with a vengeance.  The Virginian Pilot has details on McAuliffe's veto.  Here are highlights:

As promised, Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday vetoed a bill that said no minister or religious organization could be penalized for acting on a belief that marriage should be only between a man and a woman.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the legislation, SB41, this year as a religious freedom bill.

McAuliffe, however, said that religious freedoms already are protected, and that state Sen. Bill Carrico’s bill was unconstitutional and discriminatory. The Democratic governor signed the veto on the air during WTOP radio’s “Ask the Governor” program.  “We can’t tolerate that,” McAuliffe said. “We cannot have fear and persecution.”

He said existing law and the First Amendment protect religious freedom.

The bill passed 59-38 in the House of Delegates and 20-19 in the Senate during this year’s General Assembly session.

“This legislation is also bad for business and creates roadblocks as we try to build the new Virginia economy,” McAuliffe said in a statement with the veto. “Businesses and job creators do not want to locate or do business in states that appear more concerned with demonizing people than with creating a strong business climate.”

CEOs employ gay people and don’t look favorably on such legislation, he said.

American Airlines, Apple, Dow Chemical, PayPal, Bank of America, Yahoo and Facebook are among companies critical of North Carolina’s new law.

LGBT rights group Equality Virginia said the bill was one of nine this year “targeting gay and transgender individuals, signifying an unprecedented amount of LGBT-centric legislation filed in one legislative session.”

In the House, three Virginia Beach Republicans – Dels. Glenn Davis, Chris Stolle and Ron Villanueva – joined Democrats in voting “no.” Also voting “no”: Dels. Steve Heretick, D-Portsmouth; Daun Hester, D-Norfolk; Matthew James, D-Portsmouth; and Joe Lindsey, D-Norfolk. Del. Lionell Spruill, D-Chesapeake, did not vote.

What such bills are really all about is the Christofascists' sick desire to punish those who no longer accept their toxic religious beliefs and who refuse to live their lives ruled by hate and fear.  In addition, as modern science and knowledge increasingly demonstrate that the Bible is wrong on many fronts, the "godly folk" cannot tolerate anything that jeopardizes their house of cards religious belief constructs or which - God forbid - might require them to think and ignore the rants of parasitic clergy in pulpits.  The more the Christofascists' world view is challenged, the better off the nation will be.