2009 National Equality March

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Linda

Equality Fairfax participated in the National Equality March in Washington. The weather was beautiful and a huge crowd turned out for the march.

Click an image below to enlarge it or view the set on flickr.

Great News and a Bleak Outlook

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Linda

As I write this, we know that Senator Obama will be the next president and that is indeed great news! But, though only 15% of the precincts are reporting in California, I fear that proposition 8 will pass.

It looks like this could be a night where Obama wins by a greater margin than I could have imagined and equality in California falls by a greater margin than I would have expected. Indeed, I was hopeful that proposition 8 would fail in the most progressive state in the country. Unfortunately, hatred and bigotry look like they have won another temporary victory.

Regardless of how that turns out, at worst it can only delay the inevitable. As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members of our society become more accepted, as the lies and myths are debunked, the opposition to full equality will crumble. It looks like it may take longer than we’d hoped. As I head off to get some sleep, maybe the tide will change, but even if it doesn’t, it is only a matter of time.

McCain’s Lost a Vote

Posted on July 2, 2008 by Linda

I tried to send this message to Senator McCain’s campaign through his website. However, like his social policy, his website is broken. Here’s what I tried to send:

I was appalled to learn that Senator McCain had announced his endorsement of the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage in California.

Please inform the Senator that his actions have cost him my vote and ensured that I will do what I can to help Senator Obama win in Virginia (where I live).

The idea that we should use constitutions as political weapons against a group of people to motivate another group of people to get out to vote is wrong on so many levels that I can’t even begin to list my reasons or this would be a much longer message. Having seen just such an event here in Virginia and seen the damage it does, I could never support a political candidate that seeks to turn a group of people who have done nothing wrong, other than be born different than the majority, into second class citizens.

I hope Senator McCain will come to his senses and change his position. Please note that there is a lot of room between supporting gay marriage and supporting constitutional marriage bans. I’m not asking him to move all the way.

With great disappointment,
Linda Thomas

Here’s what his website said:

We’re sorry. There appears to have been an error with your request. Please try again or if the problem continues, please contact us.

The “contact us” was a link back to the contact page where I had just tried to send a message. I guess McCain’s more interested in talking than listening. It’s only July and he’s managed to totally alienate me. For someone who doesn’t have the words “George” or “Bush” in his name, that’s pretty bad.

The Day After the Election

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Linda

I don’t think I’ve ever given so much attention to an odd year election as I did this year. We have an election every year in Virginia, seemingly whether we need one or not and this year it was the house of delegates, state senate, county board of supervisors, school board and some other local stuff.

It seems kind of odd that I would be paying attention since my delegate and senator were running unopposed and I like the job that both of them have been doing. But, there were other races that I found I cared about and the results I got were a mixed bag.

It was great to see Delegates Caputo, Englin and Poisson get re-elected. And we got rid of one socially regressive senator (O’Brien) and replaced him with someone much more progressive (Barker). This was particularly gratifying because the Virginia Republican Party put out these anti-gay attack ads right at the end of the campaign.

Unfortunately it looks like Senator Cucinelli will hold on to his seat though by only the slimmest of margins. It was so close I suppose they have to do a recount but the odds of it changing probably aren’t good.

I don’t have any kids but I was happy to see Stephen Hunt get voted out of office on he school board. He used his position to launch an anti-gay attack a couple of years ago and we sure don’t need that in Fairfax County.

So, it was a mixed bag in that we didn’t win them all but we didn’t lose any ground and we made some progress.

Perhaps the most interesting race was the Devolites Davis/Petersen race. I wasn’t thrilled with either candidate and had no idea how it would come out but I expected it would be close. Turns out Petersen won easily. The only real advantage I see is that his win gives the democrats control of the senate and hopefully that will put an end to any anti-gay legislation out of Richmond, at least for 2008.

Equality Fairfax State Senate Forum

Posted on September 28, 2007 by Linda

Equality Fairfax held a candidate forum for three of the state senate races in Fairfax County.

The forum was held at MCC NOVA in Fairfax and was attended by 40-50 people as well as I can estimate.

In two cases, the incumbents declined to attend but in the 34th senate district covering Vienna, Oakton and Fairfax bot the incumbent and challenger were there.

I had other responsibilities so I didn’t get many photos and I’m beginning to think that I need to get over my aversion to flash photography when at MCC because the lighting there tends to be heavily backlit. The 40D handled well on its first time out but I’m looking forward to getting it out to some outdoor photography.

Click an image below to enlarge it or view the set on flickr.