Tag Archives: Virginia

Young Boy With Two Gay Dads Will Be Allowed In Swimming Pool

It’s nice to see some positive news from Virginia…

And for people to see just how the Private Sector tries to use anti-Gay Republican legislation to discriminate, not just against Gay people, but their children…

The good news is that, thanks to a Change.org petition with over 80,000 signatures-multiplying by the moment- they can also be persuaded to change.  But it seems they only change once there is enough Public Pressure to do so…

Wouldn’t it be nice if they did the right thing to begin with?

From the NewCivilRightsMovement.org:

 

A young boy with two gay dads will now be allowed to swim in a Virginia health club pool after a Change.org petition went viral, garnering as of this writing almost 80,000 signatures in a few days — and escalating by the thousands every few minutes. As The New Civil Rights Movement reported Tuesday, a same-sex couple who have a two-year old son had been denied access to the Roanoke Athletic Club‘s swimming pool, which is owned by the regional Virginia medical provider, Carilion Clinic, which revoked the membership of the family after they realized the family was headed by two gay dads.

The petition, by LGBT activist Mark Lynn Ferguson, noted that two men, Will Trinkle and his “partner Juan Granados wanted to take their 2-yeard-old son [sic] Oliver Trinkle-Granados to the gym’s outdoor pool during the summer months.”

Only children on family memberships are allowed to use the pool, so Trinkle signed up for a family plan. His application was accepted and processed, clearly listing him, his same sex partner, and their child as members.

Nine days later, a representative from the gym contacted Trinkle and told him that his application was processed by mistake. According to Trinkle, the representative said that the company was “‘tightening policies’ so no families like us would ever ‘get as far’ as we had.” The representative went on to claim that Roanoke Athletic Club is following Virginia state law, which does not recognize same sex marriage.

Now, just moments ago, Change.org wrote via Twitter that “The Carilion Clinic announced they will change their family policy so children with gay parents can swim in the pool!”

More:   Success! Young Boy With Two Gay Dads Will Be Allowed In Swimming Pool! | The New Civil Rights Movement.

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Chapter 63: A Sense of Place from “My Southern Gothic Life”

There is a new post up on my other blog:

 

I just got home from home…

First of all, you have to understand that home is a complex term for me.  It’s more a feeling than a place….

I just spent the weekend in Lexington, Virginia where I went to school at Washington and Lee University.

I just realized it was also my first home…

More:   Chapter 63: A Sense of Place | My Southern Gothic Life.

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Republicans Do Remember That Women Vote, Right?

I’m not so sure they do remember that women vote….or they are planning to try to roll back that basic right next….

One of the reasons I’m blogging so seldom right now is that between the GOP Presidential Primary Campaign and the GOP War on Women, I am speechless at the stupidity of the GOP and really don’t see the point in commenting on a bunch of crazy old white men who think it is still 1952 and would obviously prefer to be having cocktails with Joe McCarthy and J Edgar Hoover…..

Then along comes a true rarity:  A good column from Dana Milbank in the Washington Post….

It really has become obvious the GOP is starting to lose its War on Women- and its collective mind- when even DC insiders like Milbank recognize it and feel free to state it publicly….

The Republicans have really alienated women over the last few weeks with their drive back to the 1950’s.  It’s becoming more and more obvious they are a bunch of rich, old, white men who want to keep their patriarchy alive- and feel threatened by uppity Gays, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and most especially Uppity, Slatternly Women- which to them seems to mean all women who aren’t their wives or, in some, but not all cases, their daughters…

They obviously seem to think women are all either sluts, who should have no rights, or Ladies, who should mindlessly support their husbands and do their bidding without question.

This is the 1950’s mindset they have and just assume everyone else has also….

Rush Limbaugh is justifiably catching hell right now for actually having the nerve- and stupidity- to concisely articulate the Republican position on women.  It’s so obvious, he must be surprised at the blow back directed at him instead of Congress….

My favorite quote is from the female Oklahoma Lawmaker who said:  “If I wanted the government in my womb, I’d f*#k a Senator.”

The Republicans are driving women over to the Democratic Party in droves with   their intrusive anti-abortion legislation in Virginia-  among other states- their anti contraception amendments in the Senate and the assault on Planned Parenthood and Women’s healthcare.

Can anything be more indicative of how out of touch the Republican Party is than the fact that we are actually discussing anti-contraception legislation in the 21st Century????

I’m starting to think there must be a lot more retro-closet cases than Ken Mehlman in the GOP if they are this afraid of “lady parts”…..

From Dana Milbank in the Washington Post:

When will Republicans stop their vagina monologue?

March is federally recognized as Women’s History Month, and Republicans have been celebrating the occasion in a most unusual style: with a burst of interest in women’s private parts.

On Thursday, the Senate took up an amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) that would allow employers to deny women birth-control coverage if the employer found contraception morally objectionable.

About 100 miles south of Washington on that same day, Virginia legislators passed a measure requiring a woman to be offered an ultrasound image of her fetus before aborting it. The legislation, which opponents say could also require some women who have miscarriages to be offered ultrasonic images of their dead fetuses, is the successor of a bill that would have required women to undergo an invasive “transvaginal ultrasound.”

Still on Thursday, the industrious Virginia House of Delegates also approved legislation bestowing rights on people, including a father, to bring a lawsuit over the death of the fetus.

On Wednesday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, a powerful influence among Republican lawmakers, described as a “slut” the law-school student invited by House Democrats to testify in support of birth control. “It makes her a prostitute,” Limbaugh said of the woman, blocked last month by House Republicans from testifying on what became an all-male panel. “She wants to be paid to have sex.”

On Tuesday, Oklahomans held a protest at the state capitol to oppose a bill, passed by the state Senate and now being taken up by the House, that would bestow “personhood” on fetuses — one of many such efforts across the nation. Democrat Judy McIntyre, one of just four women in the 48-member state Senate, was so upset that, according to the Oklahoman newspaper, she held a protest sign proclaiming: “If I wanted the government in my womb, I’d [expletive] a senator.”

via Republicans do remember that women vote, right? – The Washington Post.

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Ex-congressman Virgil Goode Eyes Presidential Bid

Hasn’t he already embarrassed Virginia enough?

This man is seriously crazy- which is normal for Virginia Republicans…

Now it seems he is taking his crazy on the road…

Thank god, Goode finally lost his Congressional seat to the great Tom Perriello and we thought we were rid of him.  Unfortunately, Tom lost to that dim bulb Robert Hurt who currently occupies the VA 5th District seat and is, at least, a much quieter embarrassment than Goode.

Now, it seems, the national GOP just isn’t crazy enough for Virgil, so he’s going to try to make a comeback….

God, help us…

It will take at least a century for Virginia’s image to recover from this- especially if the current right-wing lunatic governor with really bad televangelist Republican hair ends up as the GOP VP nominee…

The good news, is there are a few people crazy enough to vote for Virgil Goode, at least in Southside Virginia, so he will at least pull a few dozen votes away from whoever the GOP nominates….

From The Washington Post:

Virgil H. Goode Jr. — the former Virginia congressman and state Senator who switched from Democrat to Independent to Republican during his time in office — is apparently interested in the nation’s top job. Goode filed papers with the Federal Election Commission last week to create the Virgil Goode for President Campaign Committee.

The form does not specify which party’s banner Goode will run under, but in 2010 he was named to the executive committee of the Constitution Party, and last year the party unanimously adopted a resolution calling on Goode to run for president. He said at the time he would “consider it.”

via Ex-congressman Virgil Goode eyes presidential bid – Virginia Politics – The Washington Post.

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The Novel Has Begun….

New post up on my other blog…

I’ve been playing with writing a novel and here is a very rough draft of part of the first chapter….

Click the link if you want to read more:

I was living in a dying town.  It was official.  I had seen the story listing the “official” government lists of dying cities and my town was on the list.  It was in the Washington Post, so it must be true.

The funny thing was, I had come back here to get away from the dying.

But both death and time do have a way of catching up with you.

I wondered how the town would react if I reprinted the story in our local newspaper.  They would probably just ignore it.  Or some of our stalwart citizens would angrily condemn it in angry letters to the editor.  Either way, it was probably best to just ignore it.  That’s what people generally did with bad news from outside here in Southside  Virginia.

It had always been an insular, closed off little town, but it was even more so now.  The cotton mills were gone and tobacco was now widely thought to be worse than opium.  But, people couldn’t let go of the past.  People here were still fighting the Civil War and referring to it as the “War of Northern Aggression” on the local blogs and on Facebook pages.

It was not a good place to be young, smart or interested in new thoughts and things outside of the town or a good place to live if you asked too many questions or challenged the status quo.  Never had  been.

Those were the thoughts I was having as I sat on the old glider of my Grandmother’s house in the mill village and nursed a Virginia Gentleman and water.  Things always stayed the same here.  Or people tried like hell to make them do so.

That’s why I was so surprised to see a new Volvo come down the hill and pull in behind my Lexus in the gravel drive way beside the house.  I didn’t often have visitors.  However, I was only slightly surprised to see Peyton Chandler McManus get out of the Volvo and walk up to the porch.  She had been gone for years, but I had heard she was back in town.

More:  The Novel Has Begun…. | My Southern Gothic Life.

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Chapter 61: Bosom Buddies | My Southern Gothic Life

I posted a new post on my other blog a day or two ago…

Here is a brief excerpt and a link to the full blog entry….

 

My Best Friend had Heart Surgery this week…

I don’t like to think of us as old enough to have to face these issues, but I guess we are…

And “Best Friend” is a very inclusive, non-exclusive term for me…I have several.

First and foremost is Steve, my partner and soulmate.  He’s in a class by himself.  I have another friend who is a “Best Friend”, who goes back more years than I care to count, but she’s like my “female” “Best Friend”.

This guy is, I guess the best way to put it, my male “Best Friend”.  He’s the Brother I never had…

via Chapter 61: Bosom Buddies | My Southern Gothic Life.

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Conservative Family Values? AntiGay Candidate Admits Lesbian Affair With Student 40 Years Ago, Still Wants Political Office

Those Family Values Republicans are at it again….

This district is very close to Jerry Falwell’s Christian Indoctrination Camp (AKA Liberty University)  and in about the most conservative part of Virginia….

I actually managed a campaign against the guy who is retiring twentysome years ago.  I know this district well.  I’m going to have to pay more attention to the local Virginia press on this one.  This could get really good….

Apparently we have a potentially felonious “ex” Lesbian running against a guy convicted of drunk driving and carrying a concealed weapon for the State Senate?  That’s just on the “conservative” GOP and GOP “Leaning” side.

Sounds like typical Virginia Republicans to me….

The Dems seem to be staying out of this and letting the GOP do their dirty work for them….

I encourage you to click through the link and read the whole story.  Truth is truly stranger than fiction…..You can’t make this stuff up!

From Jonathan Turley:

An interesting story out of Appomattox, Virginia, and  one that hits closer to home than I originally thought. Anti-Gay lobbyist and former deputy clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates, Linda Wall, wants to put her conservative  ideology to work for the citizens of Appomattox, Virginia in the election for the Commonwealth’s 59th District House seat.  Running as an independent, she describes herself as a “Republican-leaning conservative.” Her campaign slogan is: “A Campaign of Protection and Restoration.”  But the place where our Country was reunited in 1865, is wondering just what kind of “protection” she’s talking about and has a real dilemma on its hand since Wall admitted a lesbian affair with one of her junior high students in the early 1970s.

via Conservative Family Values? AntiGay Candidate Admits Lesbian Affair With Student 40 Years Ago, Still Wants Political Office « JONATHAN TURLEY.

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Eric and Irene: Have you left no sense of decency?

Great article from Paul Krugman on Eric  Cantor and his evil ways.

In case you missed it, Cantor now wants to require all disaster aid for Hurricane Irene be off set by budget cuts…

As Krugman says, he’s holding Irene’s victims hostage.  The good news is that George Allen, the probable GOP Senate nominee supports him and his position.  I hope they go down together.

I just can’t quite figure out how my birth state can justify electing people like this….

Back in the day, people who showed such callousness and disregard for people in trouble would have been shunned…

It’s no longer the gracious, genteel Virginia I once knew.

 

 

“Have you left no sense of decency?” That’s the question Joseph Welch famously asked Joseph McCarthy, as the red-baiting demagogue tried to ruin yet another innocent citizen. And these days, it’s the question I find myself wanting to ask Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who has done more than anyone else to make policy blackmail — using innocent Americans as hostages — standard operating procedure for the G.O.P.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Cantor was the hard man in the confrontation over the debt ceiling; he was willing to endanger America’s financial credibility, putting our whole economy at risk, in order to extract budget concessions from President Obama. Now he’s doing it again, this time over disaster relief, making headlines by insisting that any federal aid to the victims of Hurricane Irene be offset by cuts in other spending. In effect, he is threatening to take Irene’s victims hostage.

Mr. Cantor’s critics have been quick to accuse him of hypocrisy, and with good reason. After all, he and his Republican colleagues showed no comparable interest in paying for the Bush administration’s huge unfunded initiatives. In particular, they did nothing to offset the cost of the Iraq war, which now stands at $800 billion and counting.

And it turns out that in 2004, when his home state of Virginia was struck by Tropical Storm Gaston, Mr. Cantor voted against a bill that would have required the same pay-as-you-go rule that he now advocates.

But, as I see it, hypocrisy is a secondary issue here. The primary issue should be the extraordinary nihilism now on display by Mr. Cantor and his colleagues — their willingness to flout all the usual conventions of fair play and, well, decency in order to get what they want.

via Eric and Irene – NYTimes.com.

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Pat Robertson: How Do You Explain This One?

Again, I’m going to try to follow Pat Robertson’s illogical logic…

In the video below, he talks about this week’s Virginia earthquake causing cracks in the Washington Monument and implying that it is symbolic and a message from God…

Well, there is a major Hurricane heading right for Pat Robertson’s Headquarters in Virginia Beach.  I wonder what he will have to say about that….

Maybe this is also symbolic and a message from god?

I somehow don’t think he’ll see it that way….

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Why there was an Earthquake in Virginia today….

Following the logic they used to explain Katrina and other natural disasters, there must have been an earthquake in the Old Dominion because Pat Robertson’s and Jerry Falwell’s organizations are headquarted in the State of Virginia.

Or because the Virginia Attorney General, Governor and GOP are anti-gay equality…

Seems logical if you buy into their previous assumptions…

Of course, logic doesn’t apply to these folk’s thought process…..

Maybe the earthquake was so mild just to warn those guys…..

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