Equality Fairfax

This interview was originally recorded in October 2009 for the House of Delegates District 41 race. Delegate Marsden won that race and now he is running for Senate District 37. This was Senator Cuccinelli’s district but he won election as Attorney General.

Delegate Marsden’s opponent is Stephen Hunt. Mr. Hunt did not return our telephone calls or respond to emails.

Delegate Marsden told us that his views are unchanged from October so we are bringing you that recording. Though it refers to the November election that recently took place, it is still applicable to this special election.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:53 — 6.7MB)

Join Equality Fairfax for an evening of community –a Sunday evening of friends and food.   A chance to socialize with old friends, meet new people and enjoy some tasty food.

This will be our 6th Annual Potluck at the Greenbriar, a wonderful community center with a fireplace.

Bring your friends and family and your favorite dish to share with others.  We’ll provide sodas and waters.  Alcohol is allowed for those who like to bring wine or beer.

The Greenbriar can be easily missed as the entrance is not well marked — if you are going north on Stringfellow Road, the entrance is on the left just past Melville Road — about 100 yards.

Greenbriar Community Center
4615 Stringfellow Road
Chantilly VA

This is a special election for the Senate seat currently held by KenCuccinelli. Senator Cuccinelli is vacating the seat because he was elected to be attorney general in the November election.

The candidates are:

• David Marsden (currently serving as Delegate of House District 41)
• Stephen Hunt (former Fairfax County school board member)

We are hoping each candidate will participate in a podcast to answer questions.

Senate District 37 runs from West Springfield in the southeast through Burke to Centreville and Chantilly. For a map of the district, look here.

With a new year comes a new meeting of Virgina’s General Assembly in Richmond. Each year Equality Fairfax participates with Equality Virginia in Lobby Day – an opportunity for us to visit our legislators in Richmond and discuss legislation and issues. This is a significant chance to:

• Advocate for pro-equality laws for all LGBT people in Virginia
• Make our legislators aware that we’re here and we care about the issues
• Put a personal face on the important issues that affect us

Equality Fairfax will make sure we meet with each of the delegates and senators for Fairfax County. But, without constituents from the actual districts we can’t drive the point home – that’s why we need everyone to attend! It’s important that your delegate and senator know that YOU are from their district – they represent you, and you’re making your voice heard. It’s an easy but important process.

Mark your calendars and make appropriate preparations to take off work so you can join us for this crucial day of the year. We’ll update with more information as the date gets closer.

Registration is now open for Lobby Day! Sign up here.

It’s that time again! Equality Fairfax is hosting a holiday happy hour December 9th at Uno’s in Merrifield (just off Route 50 and Gallows Road). We’ll be there from 6pm to 8:30pm. Come join us for some holiday fun as the season kicks off. This will be our last happy hour for the year so don’t miss it!

Please feel free to bring your friends.

Address: 3058 Gatehouse Plaza, Falls Church

A new publicaition, the DC Agenda, is up and hoping to succeed the now defunct Washington Blade. It’s just getting going, but you can check it out online and see what they are up to.

We learned today that the Washington Blade has ceased publication. For details, see this story. The Blade has been a fixture in the DC area gay community and though it was more focused on the city than the suburbs, it’s presence will be missed.

Though Maine’s rejection of equality is disappointing this article is worth reading as it shows how acceptance of marriage equality is growing throughout the county. That article also links to a paper that is the source for the charts.

Here in Virginia, support for same sex marriage has grown from 25% in 1994 to about 38% in 2008. That still puts us seriously below a majority but it’s interesting to note that the anti-marriage amendment vote had roughly 42% “no” votes. So, even some people who don’t support marriage equality didn’t support a constitutional amendment to discriminate.

Looking at it by age group, the 18-29 year old group, in 2008 here in Virginia were 55-60% in favor of marriage equality. This speaks volumes in terms of how long Virginia’s institutionalized homophobia will last.

Virginia has often been listed as one of the most homophobic states in the country, but, at least by the data represented in this paper, we are in the middle of the pack. We have had some of the most homophobic legislators but this paper shows that this attitude doesn’t exist in the general population to the same degree is has in the General Assembly. Alabama’s citizens would appear to be the least in favor of marriage equality and this article in the Advocate shows how very much alive that homophobia is when a principal will cancel a prom rather than let two lesbians attend as a couple.

Most of the readers of this already know that Maine voters repealed Maine’s marriage equality law. This is a major disappointment but there were positives last night. It appears the attempt to repeal Washington state’s domestic partnership law may have been defeated though by the slimmest of margins. Voters in Kalamazoo, Michigan also soundly defeated an attempt to repeal that city’s non-discrimination law.

Though the result in Maine is disappointing, we mustn’t let it discourage us. In any movement there are always setbacks and while California and Maine are major setbacks we must take that disappointment and channel it into positive action.

One of the lessons from Maine is that urban voters supported our cause while rural voters didn’t. Unfortunately, there simply weren’t enough urban voters in Maine. Most states probably don’t have enough big cities to offset the large but more diffuse population outside the urban regions. As a community, we’ve done a pretty good job of educating voters in urban and suburban areas. Most of us live in these regions. It’s probably safe to say that most people who live in rural areas don’t have much contact with openly gay people. Until we can reach that group, we’re always going to be living on the razor’s edge in votes like this.

Here in Virginia, marriage equality still has a long road ahead of it but there is still a great deal of work to do to make Virginia a safer place for us to live. We need to continue to work to get a state law passed to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in state hiring. At the federal level we need to continue to work to pass ENDA and repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Progress on those issues will ultimately help move the marriage equality issue forward.

November 3rd is election day in Virginia. Polls are open from 6am to 7pm.

The following offices are being determined by this election:

• governor
• lieutenant governor
• attorney general
• delegates

Be sure to make your voice heard!