Resort Towns Ask: Will There Be Summer?

Outer Banks beach.

Locally, the cities of Williamsburg and Virginia Beach rely heavily on tourism for a large part of their economy.  To the south in North Carolina's Outer Banks, dependence on tourism is even more significant.  With Memorial Weekend the weekend after next, the big issue facing businesses within the tourism industry is whether or not there will be a summer tourist season and, if there is, what will it look like. With over three weeks of paid vacation left of the year, the husband I find ourselves with no travel plans for the first time in years - our October cruise was cancelled - and left without two months of income from the husband's salon which just reopened under a whole new mode of operation: open more days, stylists working staggered schedules to keep the numbers of people in the place at any one time reduced to less than 10 people, constant sanitizing, and many client in-salon perks eliminated, with no one knowing how long this "new normal" will last. Will we travel this summer?  I honestly do not know.  In Virginia Beach hoteliers are facing an even more daunting scenario as they wonder who will visit the area given the economic stress so many unemployed people face and fears of exposure to the covid-19 virus.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the questions facing the tourism industry around the country.  Here are highlights: 

In summer resort towns across the United States, livelihoods for the year are built in the 15 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It is during those 15 weeks that tourists from around the country and the world arrive to bask on the beach and gather for festivals and weddings. And it is during those three months that tour operators, hoteliers, innkeepers, restaurant employees and others earn the bulk of their income.

But this year, with Memorial Day — the kickoff for summer — approaching, there will be fewer guests to welcome and likely no sizable weddings or festivals to host. Business owners in resort areas, from Cape Cod, Mass., to Lake Chelan, Wash., say that as the start of summer approaches, they are having to face the difficult reality that little money will be made this year.

Between canceled trips and uncertainty about how willing and financially able people will be to travel once shelter-in-place rules are lifted, business owners say that even if summer travel starts late, it won’t make up for losses that have already been incurred.

Traffic to resort towns will likely consist of local visitors from nearby cities and towns for day or weekend trips, rather than for longer stays, business owners speculated. Many also said they expect to see few, if any, international visitors.

Public health is essential and should be prioritized, Ms. Rishel and other business owners said, but business survival is also important. And so resort towns are grappling with the cost-benefit analysis of reopening and potentially having the virus spread versus remaining closed and potentially shuttering doors.

In North Carolina’s Outer Banks, tourists will be allowed to return and stay in hotels beginning on May 16, but life will be different. Social-distancing rules will have to be followed; businesses will limit the number of people to 50 percent of their usual capacity; sanitizing stations will be at every turn; and staff at hotels will wear masks.

“Even if we can’t do 100 percent of our normal business, we are just excited to be back in business and have a chance at survival,” said John Harris, a co-founder of Kitty Hawk Kites, which offers adventure tours and sells and rents equipment for various outdoor activities. “Staying closed isn’t an option for a community that’s 90 percent dependent on tourism.” Mr. Harris said about 80 percent of his revenue is made between Memorial Day and the end of September.

In New Jersey, where beaches will be open for Memorial Day, with restrictions, and hotels will reopen on June 1, the mood among some innkeepers and hoteliers is also cautiously optimistic. . . . . Who will come and how many of them will come is the unknown at this point, but we’re getting calls for reservations and people are reaching out on Facebook, so it looks like we will have our summer.”

“I’m excited to see people, but I’m also being terrified because it’s too soon to reopen,” she said. “I don’t think the state has met all the standards they said we’d need to meet before we open. We are still seeing new cases, and the rules about how to operate just aren’t clear.”

Ms. Gutlon, as well as other innkeepers and owners in North Carolina, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Washington state, said that they are trying to figure out the rules for guest numbers, social distancing and serving food on their properties. For example, she said, no more than 10 people can gather, but the inn typically has about 16 guests in its eight rooms, in addition to staff — so would filling rooms be breaking the rules?

In Massachusetts, where short-term rentals (including hotels) have been banned since March, the lack of direction from authorities led 26 Martha’s Vineyard innkeepers and hotel operators to write a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker’s advisory task force earlier this month, asking for guidance about reopening.

Hospitality businesses are also thinking about how the industry has been fundamentally changed by the coronavirus. When tourists return, there will be no hugging and no touching; smiles will be hidden behind masks; turndown service likely won’t exist; and many travelers will be afraid of staying in hotels where they don’t control cleaning procedures or know who stayed there before they did.

“Will people want to pay hundreds of dollars to take their own sheets off their bed or to sit in their room and eat all their meals there?” asked Ms. Gutlon of the White Doe Inn in the Outer Banks. She and others said that those questions will also affect people’s willingness to travel from afar. Guests who usually book for more than just a few days have all canceled their trips this year, she said.

Carol Watson, one of the owners of the Captain Farris House, an inn on Cape Cod, said she is already feeling the loss of international visitors.

Memorial Day, Ms. Watson said, is the real kickoff for the summer season, and she would normally be preparing for a revolving door. Instead, she is spending her time on conference calls with other business owners and a marketing company, trying to stay on top of what’s going on and updating policies and cleaning and sanitizing procedures.

“Everybody is frustrated with where we’re at and we’re all worried about this summer, but we don’t want to see people sick,” she said. “We don’t want to see people dying.”

Pete Buttigieg Ascendant; Apologists for Black Homophobia

Prior post on this blog looked at the issues of (i) black homophobia presenting an obstacle to Pete Buttigieg, especially in the early primary state of South Carolina, and (ii) Buttigieg has jumped to the lead in Iowa based on the most recent polling. I return to the first topic because statistician wonk Nate Silver has put together data (see the chart above) that suggests that black homophobia is real even as two prominent black columnists in the New York Times and the Washington Post have tried to depict reporting on the reality of black homophobia as a lie promoted by "white liberals."  Here's a portion from the Times piece:

Reducing Pete Buttigieg’s struggle to attract black support solely to black homophobia is not only erroneous, it is a disgusting, racist trope, secretly nursed and insidiously whispered by white liberals with contempt for the very black people they court and need.

The Post piece isn't any better as this quote indicates: "all the armchair pundits — and actual pundits — perpetuating the lie that blacks are more homophobic than anyone else are smearing African Americans as a whole, . . . "  

Like it or not, Silver's data indicates that there IS a serious gap in support of LGBT rights among blacks as a whole compared to other racial demographics that actively vote in primaries.  Does this mean that all blacks are homophobic?  Of course not, but it does suggest that blacks' demand support for their rights that they are not willing to extend to others who are targets of society at large.  Here in Hampton Roads we recently saw this double standard writ large when Virginia Beach Human Rights Commissioner LaKendrick El who is black said horrible things about LGBT individuals as a class of people.  El was eventually forced to resign but in the process damaged the image of the Commission he had served on and possibly alienated some in the LGBT community from being supportive of black civil rights and/or black politicians.  Lurking behind such homophobia is religion, one of the most toxic forces in the world.  In the case of El, he is a Muslim and in the case of many blacks they belong to evangelical churches that are often anti-gay. 

The second topic merits further consideration for several reasons.  One is Buttigieg's fundraising prowess.  As Outwire757.com is reporting and the graph above indicates, here in Virginia, Buttigieg has raised more money - in some cases far more money - than any of the other Democrat presidential primary candidates.  This, combined with the recent Iowa poll results have made Buttigieg a target for his rivals and their supporters as explored by a piece in Vanity Fair:

Pete Buttigieg entered the 2020 race as a longshot. But the 37-year-old South Bend mayor has since demonstrated exceptional staying power, captivating moderates and many in the donor class, and establishing himself as part of the top tier of candidates. Now, he’s doing more than surging in polls; he’s starting to lead them. 

While that surely sends a jolt through the other Democrats vying for the party nod, it has also sounded alarms among Republicans. “He’d be a fresh face with a message of unity and a more traditional Democratic program that’s not as scary to suburbanites,” Karl Rove told Axios Monday. Some top Trump advisers are reportedly worried that Buttigieg is “more talented than Joe Biden” and “will be harder to brand as a leftist radical.”

 

Buttigieg’s star has risen in tandem with increasing concern among the party establishment that Biden is carrying too much baggage to defeat Donald Trump, and that Warren and Sanders are too far left. Buttigieg has appealed to the party’s moneyed centrists by taking a middle-of-the-road approach, relying less on a bold agenda and more on soaring rhetoric evoking Barack Obama’s calls for unity.

 

Such appeals have earned him large crowds, growing support, and the attention of big donors. But they’ve also rankled other Democrats . . . . Many of Buttigieg’s detractors view his approach as an inadequate response to an openly corrupt president who’s left some Americans feeling uniquely vulnerable. He’s invited serious questions about his ability to tackle those issues, struggling to make inroads among black and minority voters.

That could weigh Buttigieg down in the early primary state of South Carolina. But a win in Iowa, the first contest of the Democratic primary, could deliver him significant momentum, forcing the political world to take him seriously, and potentially damaging the campaigns of the other leading candidates. A Buttigieg victory, after all, would raise questions both about Biden’s electability—his primary selling point—and the electorate’s appetite for the progressive visions of Warren and Sanders. With plenty at stake, Buttieg may start getting the frontrunner treatment—particularly at Wednesday night’s Democratic debate.

Where all of this goes, nobody knows.  That said, if the black community displays homophobia towards Buttigieg, they may well undermine support for their own cause among some in the LGBT community and turn a situation where two groups that should be allies find themselves something less and as a result are less cohesive and effective at creating much needed change.  Trump and Republicans need to remain the focused enemy.

LGBT Activists Call for Removal of Anti-Gay Human Rights Commissioner

Virginia Beach is rapidly gaining national and international media attention due to the horrific anti-gay and anti-transgender remarks made by  a member of the City's Human Rights Commission. For a city that depends so heavily on tourism dollars, being perceived as intolerant and unwelcoming can be a kiss of death and Commissioner LaKendrick El toxic Facebook Posts are rapidly undue years of city efforts to enhance the city's image nationally and internationally. In an unusual display of unity, area LGBT organizations and activists have unanimously called for El's removal - something that seemingly is supported by a majority of the members of Virginia Beach City Council.  The Virginian Pilot is  reporting on the controversy that is generating animosity among elements of the city's population.  So far, there is no word on whether El will resign or be removed by City Council.  Here are article highlights (note El's comments about "special rights" - something that it is actually Christofascists and other right wing religious extremists are seeking for themselves): 

Leaders in Hampton Roads’ LGBT community called for the removal of a member of Virginia Beach’s Human Rights Commission on Thursday following comments he posted on Facebook saying homosexuality was an “abomination” and that transgender people suffer from a mental illness.

It’s unclear what sparked the series of Facebook posts by LaKendrick El on Monday. El did not respond to a message from The Virginian-Pilot seeking comment.

El’s posts are not publicly viewable, but screen shots provided to the Pilot by the advocacy group Hampton Roads Pride show that he shared a 2017 news story about a transgender woman in Wyoming who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in a bathroom in a private home [El may have quoted a false Fox News story about this occurence].

“This is why we need to stop giving men in dresses passes,” El wrote. “I have daughters and I won’t accept them sharing a restroom with a grown man suffering from this mental illness.”

In a separate post less than 15 minutes later, El suggested that gay and lesbian people are getting special treatment, although he did not specify in what way.

“Stop promoting sexuality to our children. Two men or women together is an abomination according to my faith,” he wrote. “Stop promoting your sexual behavior expecting special treatment based on who you’re having sex with.”

LGBT advocates expressed dismay that a member of a human rights commission would express such views. Stacie Walls-Beegle, executive director of the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk, said El’s comments are especially harmful to those struggling to understand their sexuality.

El’s comments also drew the ire of his fellow commission members, the city’s mayor and a majority of city council members.

“The Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission was founded to institute, conduct and engage in educational and informational programs for the promotion of mutual understanding and respect among citizens and the fulfillment of human rights," Mayor Bobby Dyer said at a news conference.

“We believe the public comments of Brother LaKendrick Coburn El are contrary to these basic goals that are the core of the Human Rights Commission, and it is no longer appropriate for him to serve in this capacity."

The commission’s chairwoman, Sylvia Nery-Strickland, said El’s comments do not reflect her group’s position.

“I am deeply saddened at the anguish and pain affecting LGBT community,” she said. “I understand how hurtful these comments are. … These comments stand in start contrast to the public position of the Human Rights Commission."

I would also note that time and time again when political figures and right wing religious figures are stridently anti-gay, it's usually only a matter of time before they are exposed for being sexual predators or engaging in the type of sex they are outwardly condemning. Think former congressman Ed Shrock, Tim Haggard, and an endless parade of Republican office holders this blog has noted over the years.

Virginia GOP Fear Mongering Ahead of Special Session, November Elections

On July 9, 2019, a special session of the Virginia General Assembly will take place in the wake of the mass shooting in Virginia Beach.  The purpose? To try to enact some common sense gun control measures that will (i) make it more difficult for those with questionable backgrounds to purchase guns, (ii) hopefully limit the number of guns one can buy in a given month, and (iii) end Virginia role as being the main source of illegal guns in New York State and the Northeast in general.  To hear the shrieks and lies of the Virginia GOP and their allies at the NRA and in white supremacist and Christofascist groups (the two are largely synonymous), it's the end of the world.  Indeed, they whine that Democrats are going to "take our state away from us" as if the rest of us have no claim to our home state  and no right to be free from constant fear of gun violence. In the lead up to the November, 2019, elections here in Virginia, expect the shrieking to become even louder and the lies to become even more disingenuous.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the GOP fear mongering which will only intensify and, which as the norm for the GOP in Virginia, involves attacking LGBT Virginians.  Here are article highlights: 

One evening, one city still reeling from mass gun violence, two separate gatherings. At a recreation center, residents fearful of too many guns. At a hotel conference room, National Rifle Association members worried about gun restrictions.

The dueling messages have been playing out around Virginia as lawmakers and the NRA rally opposing camps ahead of next week’s General Assembly special session on gun control. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) ordered the July 9 session after a gunman killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building on May 31.

The issue has crystallized what’s at stake in elections this fall, when Republicans try to defend their razor-thin majorities and Democrats try to seize control of the General Assembly for the first time in more than two decades.

Republicans are sounding an alarm, warning that the consequences this fall could be extensive. The NRA rally in Virginia Beach on Monday night was closed to the media. But at a similar NRA gathering last week in Fredericksburg, a recording of which was obtained by The Washington Post, the message was dark.

“They want our state,” Del. Margaret B. Ransone (R-Westmoreland) told an audience of mostly gun rights supporters in Fredericksburg. . . . They intentionally want to turn it blue. Gun control, abortion rights, social justice — they’ve named their three; that’s what they want.” “We are on the cusp of changing things, and we need all of you to help this year,” Democratic Senate candidate Missy Cotter Smasal told an audience of about 50 gun-control advocates Monday night at a recreation center in Virginia Beach.

As Smasal spoke in the recreation center, the Republican she is trying to unseat, Sen. William R. DeSteph Jr., addressed nearly 200 at a closed NRA meeting in a hotel near the oceanfront. Smasal called DeSteph’s appearance at that event “disrespectful and contemptuous” coming so soon after the mass shooting.

“We’re the counterweight to what’s happening in our town right now. We’re the counterweight to that NRA town hall,” Sibel Galindez, who helps run the Hampton Roads chapter of Moms Demand Action, told Smasal’s gathering at the rec center.

Galindez and her group offered to help people travel to Richmond next week for the special legislative session to express support for the gun-control measures outlined by Northam. Those include bans on military-style weapons, high-capacity magazines and devices to help guns shoot faster or quieter; limiting handgun purchases to one per month; a “red-flag law” allowing authorities to seize weapons from someone deemed a danger; and requiring people to report lost or stolen firearms.

Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) [who in my view is bought and paid for by the gun lobbt]. . . . described overhearing a Democratic colleague, Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (Alexandria), sitting in his office and telling someone that “we will radically change Virginia when we take control.”

He said Ebbin is “from Northern Virginia. He’s really liberal left; he’s . . . the [only] openly gay senator in our Senate.” And Reeves said Ebbin’s agenda “means infanticide is coming, all the gun bills. We’re going to lose the right to work. . . . Minimum wage — just minimum will be $15, but I heard him talking about $20 to $25.”

Ebbin, when told of Reeves’s remarks at the town hall, said he never made any of the comments attributed to him. “Apparently I’m a radical homosexual who’s misquoted,” Ebbin said sarcastically.

“I did speak to him once on, ‘Couldn’t we agree on universal background checks,’ but I’ve never talked to him about radically changing the course of Virginia,” Ebbin said. “I’ve never heard any Democrat in Virginia or elsewhere that I recall talking about a minimum wage over $15.”

Ebbin said he was most upset that Reeves would invoke his sexual orientation.

Expect Reeves, DeSteph - who I have no use for - Ransome and other Republics to lie through their teeth booth about the special legislative session and the November elections. I was at a CLE course where Tommy Norment, GOP Senate majority leader, was the presenter and even in that venue he lied non-stop on gun control issue.  Today's Republicans have something in common with the "professional Christians" of the "Christian Right": if their lips are moving, it's almost a 100% guarantee that they are lying.

Virginia Republicans May Not Be Able to Smother Gun Control Again

Yesterday, my friend Governor Ralph Northam called a special session of the Virginia General Assembly to consider gun control reform in the wake of the horrific massacre in Virginia Beach last Friday by an individual armed with a silencer and extended magazines - all items legal for purchase under Virginia's current insane gun laws. Coincidentally, I attended a continuing legal education seminar today where the presenter was Republican Senate majority leader Tommy Norment who took time before the seminar began to figuratively take shots at Governor Northam and the majority of Virginians who favor universal background checks and the banning of extended magazines and silencers - things no law abiding citizens needs for self-protection or hunting. If Norment represents the GOP mindset, the special session will be filled with much vitriol and GOP political fellatio of the gun lobby. As a column in the Washington Post lays out, this go round it may be far harder for the Republicans in the General Assembly to smother gun control measures.  Let's hope the column proves to be correct.  Here are column excerpts:

If you want to know how things have rolled in Virginia on the firearms issue, consider that Gun Lobby Day is an unofficial but highly memorable event held every year at the state Capitol on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“That was so wrong for so many reasons,” Jennifer Wexton, a former state senator who is now a member of Congress, observed about the timing of the pro-firearms offensive. Wexton, first drawn to politics in part by her desire for tougher gun laws, said that the state Senate’s Republican leadership would “put up all the gun bills on that day and kill them, one after another.”

It was quite a spectacle, said state Sen. Janet D. Howell, who, like Wexton, is a Northern Virginia Democrat. “We would have citizens wandering the halls carrying Uzis and other assault weapons,” she said. “That was Virginia, darlin’.”

But it may not be Virginia anymore, or so Wexton, Howell and other advocates of gun safety hope. On Tuesday, Gov. Ralph Northam announced he was calling a special session of the state legislature to take up a package of gun-control bills in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Virginia Beach. They include many measures that Republicans, who narrowly control both houses of the state legislature, have smothered in committee before.

They may try to do this again. But it will be harder with an election looming this fall and the power on the gun issue shifting toward those who favor regulations that only the most fanatical gun rights advocates would question. They include background checks, restrictions of silencers and bump stocks, and “red flag” laws allowing families to seek the removal of firearms from those they fear pose a danger.

Democrats need to pick up only two seats in each body to take control of the House and the Senate, and after years in which opponents of gun-safety laws had the upper hand in mobilizing and organizing, the energy has switched sides. Wexton says she noticed a large shift after the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

“It’s clear from several recent elections that there’s been a sea change from the old arithmetic that the only people who vote on guns are pro-gun,” said Geoff Garin, who has polled for Democratic candidates in Virginia — Northam among them — for three decades. In his successful 2017 campaign, Garin said, Northam “leaned into support for gun-safety legislation and used his F-rating from the National Rifle Association as a badge of honor.”

Further evidence for this came from 2018 exit polling. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who also faced strong opposition from the NRA, won 82 percent among voters who said they cast their ballot on the basis of the gun issue, far exceeding his 57 percent statewide reelection total.

Almost all of McAuliffe’s gun proposals were killed by the GOP, but Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said that the special session called by Northam puts the party’s gun-control foes in a more difficult position.

“. . . the Republicans in the General Assembly are in a pincer,” Connolly said. “Either they act on the governor’s proposals, which are going to be sweeping, or they risk the rage of the electorate. . . . The patience of the electorate on these issues has been tested, strained and is at the breaking point.”

The changing politics on guns reflect a response to the pace of the threats — and to personal experiences. Democratic state Sen. Jeremy S. McPike (Prince William) told of his daughter’s suburban high school going on lockdown at the end of April after a gun was fired. “As the parent of a kid who was in lockdown, it’s real and it’s frightening to see that nothing’s getting done.

It’s your move, Virginia. The special session calls for a different kind lobbying day, one more in keeping with the spirit of nonviolence that King preached before he was gunned down.

Mass Shooting in Virginia Beach: Will Virginia GOP At Last Support Gun Control?

Historically, Virginia Beach has been a Republican bastion, although during the last few election cycles that distinction is fading as the city becomes more racially and socially diverse.  Yesterday, some of the Virginia GOP's anti-gun control agenda came home to roost as 12 innocent city of Virginia Beach employees were murdered at the city municipal center by another city employee armed with a gun with a silencer and multiple extended magazines - things one does not need if one merely has a weapon for self-protection.  The event was chilling for me since when I worked in the past with a large Virginia Beach law firm and represented developers, I frequently went to meetings in Building 2 at the municipal center which is now a major crime scene.  

As one friend on Facebook asked "How many mass shootings is it going to take before we say NO to the murder merchants at the NRA and YES to gun legislation that actually works?"  Any politician who sends "thoughts and prayers" to the victims and their families yet has voted against gun control legislation is nothing short of a lying hypocrite.  In their own way, they have blood on their hands just as much as the shooter who from the facts known fits the pattern of the quiet loner filled with hate inside - precisely who should not have a gun with multiple extended magazines.  I suspect as more information becomes known, it will be found that the shooter legally purchased the weapon and magazines used to snuff out 12 lives. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring summed it up well:

In recent years there have been mass shootings at American elementary schools, colleges, government buildings, offices, concerts, movie theaters, nightclubs…even churches, mosques, and synagogues. We have to do more to stop this kind of violence. Life doesn’t have to be this way, and it shouldn’t be this way.

New Zealand acted decisively in the wake of its recent mass shooting.  The usual suspects will whine that now is not the time to talk gun control, which is patently untrue.  The USA could do the same as New Zealand if politicians ceased taking NRA and gun manufacturer gun money and voted for common sense gun control that included strict background checks and rigidly restricted automatic weapons and extended magazines. 

Come November, the entire Virginia General Assembly is up for election.  Take the time to register to vote and get out and vote for pro-gun control candidates - which will mean voting a straight Democrat ticket.  Vote the political whores of the NRA and gun lobby out of office. Regular mass shootings does NOT have to be the norm.

Weekend Reflections - Life After Coming Out

Baylake Beach, Virginia Beach - where my parents lived for over 30 years.

Posts were down from normal levels over the weekend over the weekend and this morning.  Between PrideFest activities and a visit by family members things were pretty much non-stop in terms of activities. On Saturday, not only did the husband and I attend PrideFest in Town Point Park in downtown Norfolk, but will also attended mini-family reunion in my old neighborhood   during the period I was married and in the closet.  The good news is that my family is open and accepting, especially with my children and their cousins and now their children. Saturday was over schedule.  Yesterday was more relaxed with a outing to the beach at Fort Monroe in Hampton - I highly recommend it - and the house guests left this morning.   The image above is from the beach at my late parents' neighborhood.  Those set below are from PrideFest - yes, I was on the HR Pride Board when the first PrideFest in downtown Norfolk took place - and from the family gathering and views of the beach at Ft. Monroe in Hampton. 

Add caption

Family gathering at th Alanton-Baycliff pool, Virginia Beach, where
I served on the board of directors and as president for 2 years.

    

Ft. Monroe, Hampton, Virginia - why fight the crowds at Oceanfront when one can have this?

All said and done, it was a wonderful weekend. And while it might shock the Christofascists and Trump base, most gays have a wide range of supportive family members and friends, all of whom vot faithfully. 

Donald Trump Bloviates in Virginia Beach

GOP windbag and liar in chief Donald Trump appeared before a small crowd in Virginia Beach and gave another one of his substance free speeches that played on white fears of minorities and implied that he's favor creating an even more oppressive police state.   The supposed purpose of the appearance was to address issues facing the military in this region of Navy, Army and Air Force bases.  For the most part, it turned out to be Trump's usual race based and anti-trade message.  Here are details from the Virginian Pilot: 

Calling himself “the law and order candidate,” Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said Monday that police need more authority to protect the public but acknowledged a growing problem of racial unrest.

Trump told a crowd of about 175 supporters in a Westin Town Center hotel ballroom that he had intended to focus his afternoon speech on his proposals to assist military veterans but changed his speech after Thursday’s ambush and killing of five Dallas police officers and wounding of 10 others. Trump and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who introduced him, both argued for a stronger national focus on law enforcement.

“It’s time for our hostility against our police and against all members of law enforcement to end, and end immediately – right now,” Trump said. “We must maintain law and order at the highest level, or we will cease to have a country.”

The presumptive GOP nominee said the violence and resulting protests highlight a growing threat of racial unrest.

“I think it’s a bigger problem than people understand. I think it’s far bigger than President Obama wants to admit,” Trump said. “He doesn’t want to admit it because it’s taking place during his administration. I mean, when you have 11 cities absolutely ready to blow up over the last three or four days – and it could very well get worse. I mean we’re just going into the summer.”

The New York businessman said he could help solve those problems by blocking U.S. companies from moving operations overseas and keeping more jobs here.

Lamenting the persistent problems of veterans snagged in the Veterans Affairs bureaucracy, Trump promised a deep investigation as soon as he takes office. Among his proposed VA changes: Eligible veterans would be able to get VA-paid medical care from any doctor or medical facility rather than just the VA hospital system.

Acknowledging Hampton Roads’ dependence on defense spending, Trump said in the interview that he’ll release a detailed plan before the Nov. 8 election, outlining how he’ll grow the size of the military. It will include more personnel, more ships, more aircraft and other equipment, he said

Three hours before his speech, three former military officers who support Clinton spoke out against Trump outside the hotel.

“Donald Trump has said so many things over the years that are just so utterly insulting to the men and women who serve our country,” said Dave Belote, a retired Air Force colonel and unsuccessful 2015 state Senate candidate. “He calls our military ‘a disaster.’ ”
During the candidate’s stop, dozens of people stood outside the front entrance of The Westin.  The number of signs for and against him was about equal.
 

Scott Taylor Defeats Homophobia Randy Forbes

Taylor at the 2016 Pride Fest launch

In yesterday's Republican primary for the Virginia 2nd congressional district and gay-friendly Republican, Scott Taylor, defeated the virulently anti-gay, pro-Christofascists Randy Forbes, a carpetbagger from the re-districted 4th congressional district.  (Taylor has personally donated as a sponsor of this weekend's HR Pride Fest).  Forbes represents everything that is wrong with today's GOP and I say go riddance.  Taylor has his short-comings, but at least he's living in the 21st century, unlike Forbes who wants to bring back all of the worst aspects of the 1950's.  Since the primary likely decided who wins in November, many in the LGBT community held their noses and voted for Taylor to rid Congress of Forbes' putrid, anti-LGBT presence.  Hopefully, other area Republicans will note that being anti-LGBT just might get them defeated as this  region becomes more progressive.  Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

An ebullient state Del. Scott Taylor won the 2nd Congressional District Republican primary Tuesday with a feisty grassroots campaign after being outspent almost 10-to-1 by U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, a eight-term legislator who was trying to move from his home district to a supposedly friendlier one nearby.

Taylor’s next challenge is the Nov. 8 general election, where he will face Democrat Shaun Brown, a relatively unknown Newport News businesswoman and former unsuccessful candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates and the Newport News City Council.

He emerged from a Town Center restaurant a few minutes after 8 p.m. to a fanfare of applause and handshakes.

“This is not done alone,” he said. “This is a team effort. People come together to sacrifice for a cause greater than themselves.”

Taylor’s victory came after a bruising primary campaign in which he and Forbes traded personal barbs that challenged each other’s character and ability to support national security and the region’s defense-centric economy.

Forbes’ defeat spells the end of his 15-year career in the House of Representatives as a lawmaker from the 4th Congressional District. When his House term ends later this year, he will have served 27 consecutive years in elected office after first being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1989.

Forbes said he regretted not enough people in the 2nd District agreed with his political vision.

There was a certain amount of vindication in Tuesday’s victory for Taylor, 36, who was twice elected to the state House of Delegates. He had been subjected to strong multimedia attacks in television ads, mailings and interviews where Forbes noted Taylor’s business failures and also implied his multiple speeding violations were criminal acts.

Taylor, a former Navy SEAL, ran against much of Virginia Beach’s GOP establishment, with several local elected officials as well as departing U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell endorsing Forbes’ candidacy. Rigell rented Forbes his former headquarters on First Colonial Road and sold him his email lists of supporters.

Rigell said Tuesday night he had “significant” differences with Taylor but would support the party’s nominee to replace him in Congress. 

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.

New Gallup Study Finds Gays Everywhere in America

A new analysis of Gallup survey data is offering perhaps the most detailed data yet about where people in the LGBT community live.  Cities in the West lead the way in the percentage of residents who identify as LGBT, but the analysis also finds that gays are pretty much everywhere across America - even in backwaters of ignorance and bigotry in the South.   Gays also tend to be more numerous in college and university towns that attract more educated populations that bring increased tolerance.  Overall, the conclusions are bad news for the Christofascists who claim gays are much less numerous than is the case and for the anti-gay GOP which can lose a close election if the LGBT vote goes heavily Democrat (as has happened in Virginia).  A piece in the New York Times looks at the findings.  Here are highlights:

The Gallup analysis finds the largest concentrations in the West — and not just in the expected places like San Francisco and Portland, Ore. Among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, Denver and Salt Lake City are also in the top 10. How could Salt Lake be there, given its well-known social conservatism? It seems to be a kind of regional capital of gay life, attracting people from other parts of Utah and the Mormon West.

On the other hand, some of the East Coast places with famous gay neighborhoods, including in New York, Miami and Washington, have a smaller percentage of their population who identify as gay — roughly average for a big metropolitan area. The least gay urban areas are in the Midwest and South.

Significant as these differences are, the similarities are just as notable. Gay America, rather than being confined to a few places, spreads across every major region of the country. 

Nationwide, Gallup says, 3.6 percent of adults consider themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. And even the parts of the country outside the 50 biggest metropolitan areas have a gay population (about 3 percent) not so different from some big metropolitan areas. It’s a reflection in part of increasing tolerance and of social connections made possible by the Internet.

One factor behind the data — in Portland and elsewhere — may be people’s willingness to tell a pollster that they’re gay, lesbian or bisexual. In addition to having a larger gay population, places like Portland may also have a larger share of their gay population who publicly identify as such.

It’s no accident that some of the country’s most educated metro areas have some of the largest gay populations. Gay and lesbian Americans are not substantially more educated than the rest of the population, according to Gary Gates, a co-author of “The Gay and Lesbian Atlas,” who has studied the Gallup data. But university campuses — and the spillover neighborhoods from them, where college graduates congregate — have long been more accepting.

Boston, a city famous for its colleges, is the only East Coast metropolitan area to crack the top eight of Gallup’s ranking. Austin, home of the University of Texas, joins New Orleans as the only Southern city to be so high on the list.

Besides education, a few other factors correlate with having bigger gay populations. Metro areas with a greater share of gay and lesbian residents tend to lean Democratic. They have more adults under the age of 45 and larger Latino and Asian-American populations.

Many of the areas with the lowest percentages of L.G.B.T. people are in the South, and none have a lower share than Birmingham, where 2.6 percent of the population identifies as gay. Throughout the South, conservative Protestantism has shaped many people’s views.  

Below is a list of all 50 of the largest metro areas, along with Gallup’s estimate of the L.G.B.T. population in each:

San Francisco, 6.2 percent

Portland, Ore., 5.4

Austin, Tex., 5.3

New Orleans, 5.1

Seattle, 4.8

Boston, 4.8

Salt Lake City, 4.7

Los Angeles, 4.6

Denver, 4.6

Hartford, 4.6

Louisville, Ky., 4.5

Virginia Beach, 4.4

Providence, R.I., 4.4

Las Vegas, 4.3

Columbus, Ohio, 4.3

Jacksonville, Fla., 4.3

Miami, 4.2

Indianapolis, 4.2

Atlanta, 4.2

Orlando, Fla., 4.1

Tampa, Fla. 4.1

Phoenix, 4.1

New York, 4

San Antonio, 4

Washington, 4

Riverside, Calif., 4

Philadelphia, 3.9

Baltimore, 3.9

Buffalo, 3.9

Detroit, 3.9

Sacramento, 3.9

San Diego, 3.9

Charlotte, N.C., 3.8

Chicago, 3.8

Dallas, 3.8

Cleveland, 3.7

Kansas City (Mo. and Kan.), 3.6

Minneapolis-St. Paul, 3.6

St. Louis, 3.6

Oklahoma City, 3.5

Richmond, Va., 3.5

Nashville., 3.5

Milwaukee, 3.5

Houston, 3.3

San Jose, Calif., 3.2

Raleigh, N.C., 3.2

Cincinnati, 3.2

Memphis, 3.1

Pittsburgh, 3

Birmingham, Ala., 2.6

Note the percentages for Richmond and Virginia Beach.  I suspect Northern Virginia has even higher percentages but doesn't make the list due to how metro areas are defined.  The Virginia GOP needs to take note and accept the reality that its anti-gay bigotry is helping to make it non-competitive in state wide races. 

Richmond, Virginia Makes Appeal to Gay Tourists

Even as The Family Foundation ("TFF") and its political whores in the Virginia Republican Party continue to do all that they can to keep LGBT Virginians inferior under the laws of the Commonwealth, Richmond, the capital city of Virgina has launched a new effort to court LGBT tourists.  Sadly, the greater Norfolk area has yet to wake up to the need to make a similar marketing effort, the problem being particularly acute in Virginia Beach where the tourism bureau would overall rather court the low spending blue collar "family" market.   It goes without saying that the hate merchants at TFF are probably not too happy with the city's effort. The New York Times looks at Richmond's new effort to free itself from Virginia's anti-gay image.  Here are excerpts:

The cry “Come out, come out, wherever you are” has taken on new meaning as more Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (L.G.B.T.) come out of the closet, telling friends and family about their sexual orientation. A regional tourism organization is now echoing the process a person goes through in coming out to present a city as a welcoming destination for L.G.B.T. visitors.

The organization, known as Richmond Region Tourism, is declaring that Richmond, Va., is “coming out” as a city where L.G.B.T. tourists will feel comfortable. A campaign that began this month includes a microsite, or special website, with the address RichmondIsOut.com; print advertisements; banner ads online; a blog; a video clip; a presence in social media that include Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; and stickers for the windows of stores, shops and businesses that read “OutRVA,” a nod to residents’ name for the city, “RVA.”

The premise of the campaign, which uses “OutRVA” as a logo, is that Richmond is coming out the way a person would, spreading the word through posts in social media or missives that are known as “coming-out letters,” which may be literal, ink-on-paper letters or read aloud on videos.

So the print ads — running in newspapers aimed at L.G.B.T. readers in cities that are not far from Richmond and have large L.G.B.T. populations — begin with salutations like “Dear Atlanta,” “Dear Boston” and “Dear Washington”; include phrases like “So here it is. I’m gay” and “The fact is, I’m gay”; and conclude, “Love, Richmond, Virginia.”

The campaign presupposes that potential visitors have images of Richmond derived from its history or heritage, or perhaps because Virginia is a state where same-sex marriage is illegal and there are no statewide protections for L.G.B.T. employees in their workplaces. Those attitudes are, according to Richmond Region Tourism and the campaign, obsolete and at variance with how tolerant the city is today.

For instance, in the video clip, an announcer says: “Of course, outsiders think they know Richmond. The capital of the Confederacy, the stuck in the past, the unwelcoming, the intolerant Richmond. We’ve heard the comments, and they hurt.”

“It’s time for the world to see the L.G.B.T. community we’re proud to call our own, and the people that have risen up to support it,” the announcer continues. “We’re saying goodbye to the closet, and you’re going to have to say goodbye to your old opinion of Richmond.”

The campaign is part of recent initiatives by Richmond Region Tourism to portray the city as a lively, interesting, even sophisticated destination for tourists.

The campaign may be something new for Richmond, but many other cities, counties and states have been running ads aimed at L.G.B.T. tourists, who, according to research data, travel more frequently than their heterosexual counterparts. 

The campaign also offers “a grass-roots way for businesses to raise their hands and make a statement,” she adds, “and say they support the L.G.B.T. community regardless of what the legislators” approve or disapprove of.

Candidly, the husband and I always have a good time when we visit Richmond thanks to its museums and many wonderful dining opportunities in the Carytown area, long the city's most gay friendly neighborhood. It's time for the Cities of Hampton Roads to wake up and court the LGBT tourism market.  It's an issue that HRBOR, the region's gay and gay friendly chamber of commerce needs to push.