Archive for the ‘Virginia’ Category

On Saturday and Sunday, HRC staff and volunteers attended and worked the Blackbeard Festival in Hampton, Virginia. The event, aimed at celebrating Hampton’s 400th Anniversary and the local pirate history, drew thousands of Virginians. Salty landlubbers and rowdy swashbucklers alike supported repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and our staff and volunteers had a great time.

On Wednesday, veterans and military families came together for a meeting with Senator Mark Warner’s Vienna staff. We were warmly received and the constituents quickly made friends with the staff. They made a compelling, objective case for repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law. While Senator Warner has, regrettably, failed to publicly come out in support of repeal, we are hopeful that he will hear the calls of the veterans and constituents across the Commonwealth who wish to see this law promptly repealed.

Things are heating up in Virginia, and it’s not just the record breaking temperatures. From Richmond to Chesapeake to Arlington, HRC staff, interns and volunteers were out again this weekend working to lock down repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). With Senator Webb’s very disappointing “no” vote last month still fresh on everyone’s minds, there is a renewed sense of urgency that, while we are close, repeal isn’t a done deal and we’re going to have to work hard to lock down wavering U.S. Senators.

On Sunday, Sultan Shakir and I worked the HRC DC Pride booth to ask Virginia residents to call Senator Warner and urge him to support the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Senator Warner will have the opportunity to vote on the side of fairness and equality when the DADT repeal bill, which is attached to the National Defense Authorization Act, comes before the full Senate for a vote in the next month or so.

I just got back from a great weekend trip to Roanoke, Virginia – a.k.a The Star City! It’s a beautiful part of the Commonwealth that I know well from my upbringing in neighboring Franklin County. It was great to get back to Southwest VA for some home stretch DADT organizing.

As we near Veteran’s Lobby Day this coming Tuesday, the HRC and Servicemembers United “Voices of Honor” tour is winding down. The grassroots organizing continues in our six key states — Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Virginia and West Virginia — and the efforts are paying off.

Here’s a snapshot of what our organizers have accomplished and some of the great press attention we’ve garnered…

Staff members from across HRC are volunteering to help push us over the line in getting DADT repealed this year. This week I joined Janice Hughes, HRC’s Director of Publications, in walking the streets of Alexandria, asking fair-minded Virginians to sign postcards to Senator Jim Webb urging him to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell now.

Yesterday, the Virginia Tech and New River Valley communities came together for another leg of the Voices of Honor tour here in Virginia. The event, which was preceded by a campus flag display on Tuesday, brought out over a hundred students and local residents. Volunteers from the Virginia Tech Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance helped install the 800 flags, which symbolized the 800+ specialists with mission-critical skills who have been discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

I’m in a car right now, scooting down the interstate with my fellow Field staffer Sultan Shakir. You have to love wireless internet. We just left the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, where we’ve been working on organizing local support for DADT repeal.

After a weeklong stay in Richmond, I got on the road yesterday morning and am now camped out in Norfolk preparing for our Voices of Honor event tonight. After making so many new friends, and reuniting with a lot of older ones, I was more than a little sad to leave the state capital.
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