LOCAL

Virginia gays optimistic following election
Senate goes blue as anti-gay campaigners go down in defeat

JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, November 09, 2007

Gays in Virginia are making early plans to resurrect old gay rights initiatives after several legislators they supported won their races this week, turning the state Senate blue.

Dyana Mason, executive director at Equality Virginia, said her organization could seek to advance measures regarding employment discrimination and hate crimes when legislators reconvene in January.

“I certainly think Virginia is becoming a much more fair-minded state for LGBT citizens,” she said. “And we’re very happy about that.”

Charley Conrad, president of the Virginia Partisans Gay & Lesbian Democratic Club, agreed.

“We’re ecstatic,” he said. “We worked very hard to help bring these victories into place.”

Democrats won control of the state Senate in Tuesday’s election and picked up multiple House seats. Virginia’s only openly gay delegate, Adam Ebbin (D-49), also won re-election.

“I’m flattered and humbled to have received such an overwhelming victory,” Ebbin said, “but I’m even more excited for the improved composition in the General Assembly.”

Democrats clinched a majority in the 40-member Senate chamber with 21 seats following Democrat George Barker’s slim victory over Sen. Jay O’Brien (R-39).

O’Brien had used what critics labeled anti-gay tactics against Barker during the campaign. Mason and Conrad said they were pleased that such strategies did not sway voters.

“We’re very pleased that this continues to be a trend in Virginia,” Mason said, “where voters reject using gay and lesbian people as a divisive issue.”

Other notable winners included Delegate David Englin (D-45), who authored the Hospital Visitation Rights Act that benefited gay couples, and Chap Peterson, a former state delegate who ousted Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (R-34), whose defeat was key in turning the Senate.

Dave Lampo, vice president of Log Cabin Republican Club of Virginia, said his party would do well to learn from this week’s losses.

“If there’s one lesson here for the Republican Party, it is that they have got to stop excluding people from the Repub-lican base and start including people in the Republican base,” Lampo said.

“If they ran candidates who were socially tolerant and fiscally conservative — that’s a winning combination. That’s the only way they’re going to win in Northern Virginia and increasingly around the state.”

Not all conservative candidates lost their bids. Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13), co-author of the Virginia marriage amendment that bore his name, easily won his race.

Despite that outcome, Mason said gay Virginians are well positioned to advance pro-gay measures in Richmond.

“I think with the fair-minded majority in the Senate and the growing number of fair-minded members in the House of Delegates, we look forward to really seeing some movement forward on our issues.”

She said measures barring discrimination against gay state workers and allowing local jurisdictions to extend domestic partner benefits are at “the top of the list” for 2008.

Lampo agreed that such bills “will have as good a chance as ever,” but said a hate crimes measure could flounder.

“With the House still being in Republican hands, and the more socially conservative members setting the agenda, I think things like hate crimes legislation would be a non-starter,” he said. “Certainly not in the Senate, but in the House.”

Expectations were higher for the Senate, Lampo said, because “many of the new Democrats who were elected to replace some of these more extreme Republican candidates are definitely pro-gay rights.”

Mason also noted the revised “makeup of the Senate will certainly be very helpful to stopping anti-gay bills from going through.”

Ebbin, Conrad and others said that change alone would help gay Virginians switch from defense to offense.

“We’ve been going one step forward, two steps back for a while,” Ebbin said. “And now I think we’re ready to go two steps forward.”


Maryland results

In limited races in Maryland, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who is supportive of gay issues and the fight against HIV/AIDS, won another term in office.

Patrick Wojahn, who was among the 19 plaintiffs on the Maryland marriage lawsuit that concluded this year, won a seat on College Park City Council.

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