In 2006, Virginia
voters approved what many considered to be one of the
most draconian modern-day measures against equality in a
state constitution. The Virginia "marriage amendment"
defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman,
and prohibited the legal recognition of any
marriage-like relationship, such as a civil union or
domestic partnership, for gay or straight couples.
Nearly two years
later the effects of the loss are still being felt
viscerally, though perhaps not entirely in the way equality
foes had planned.
"What I
think we're finding now is a more organic involvement
of gay and lesbian people with the Democratic Party
and the Obama campaign," says Adam Ebbin of the
Virginia house of delegates, the senior whip of the
Democratic caucus, who in 2003 became the first openly gay
person elected to the Virginia general assembly.
"More and more gay people are involved if they
participated against the marriage amendment."
While the
marriage amendment may have brought defeat for equality in
the immediate term, conversations with those on the
front lines in Virginia suggest that the fight against
it strengthened resources and visibility, each of
which is now being channeled into the presidential election
and could help to secure a pro-equality agenda in the
state for years to come.
Though the battle
appears to have left a deeper operational legacy on the
Democratic Party, the wave of volunteering, canvassing, and
fund-raising that rose against the marriage amendment
in 2006 spanned across the ideological spectrum in the
commonwealth.
"Because
it was a specific issue, I saw lots and lots of
conservatives and libertarians fund-raising and
handing out literature you wouldn't normally
see in the GLBT movement," says David Lampo, vice
president and political director of the Log Cabin
Republicans of Virginia. "In general, a lot
stay away from the broader [gay rights] movement because
they see it as an adjunct of the Democratic
Party."
Perhaps for that
very reason, Lampo says the 2006 involvement has largely
not carried over to 2008 among gay and lesbian Republicans
during the presidential election in this increasingly
competitive swing state.
Their decreased
participation notwithstanding, Lampo says most LGBT
Republicans like McCain because he has mostly steered clear
of identity politics. "I think there is a
pretty high level of support [for him] in this
election because gay and lesbian issues are virtually out of
the debate," he says. "Even in a year
when the head winds are against Republicans, there is
still a sense that McCain is a different kind of
Republican."
In contrast,
Obama supporters like Charley Conrad, president of the
Virginia Partisans Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club, see
evidence of more gay-identified participation in the
presidential contest, such as a fivefold increase in
phone bank participation on GLBT nights at Obama
headquarters in Arlington County near Washington, D.C.
"The
Democratic Party is alive and well in Virginia," says
Conrad, who believes that rising gay interest this
year has more to do with the particular candidate than
the marriage amendment aftermath.
"I
don't think that the marriage amendment is having
that effect on Obama's candidacy," he
says. "I think it's the fact that we have a
Democratic candidate that is appealing to everybody."
Other insiders
say that the Obama momentum can best be understood in the
larger context of the urbanization of northern Virginia,
where gays and lesbians have a long political history
compared to the more conservative southwestern and
eastern portions of the state. The north is home to one
third of the state's 7.6 million residents, and it is
the base for all five of the state's openly gay
elected officials, who are Democrats.
"The
reason we're in the midst of the presidential mix
this year is that we have a changing
demographic," says Arlington County board member Jay
Fisette, who became Virginia's first openly gay
elected official in 1997. "This year the vote
of the gay and lesbian community, especially in
northern Virginia, is significant."
Since the 1970s
the population of northern Virginia has been rapidly
expanding, trending more affluent, diverse, and Democratic,
although the state's nonpartisan voter
registration makes the exact numbers elusive.
Residents have moved beyond the city of Alexandria and
Arlington County outside Washington, D.C., pushing
westward and south into the suburbs and exurbs of
Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudon counties.
That blue shift
could prove pivotal to Virginia's vote in the
presidential election, according to The Washington
Post. It also holds positive implications for equality
in the long run.
"The
developments are good," says Virginia native Bob
Witeck, CEO and cofounder of Witeck-Combs
Communications, which tracks LGBT demographics.
"They're much more Democratic now, and
they're much more ethnically diverse."
During the
marriage amendment battle, state and national Democratic
stars such as Gov. Tim Kaine, former governor Mark
Warner, and U.S. senator Jim Webb publicly opposed the
initiative, providing invaluable support and
visibility to the LGBT community and its allies.
"A number
of leading Virginia politicians stood with us, at their
potential political peril," says Delegate Ebbin, who
represents Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax.
"That was a defining campaign, to see who would
stand with us."
Now with the
popular Mark Warner positioned to capture the seat of
retiring Republican U.S. senator John Warner, Democrats in
Virginia could soon occupy the governorship, both U.S.
Senate seats, and the majority of the state senate,
with hopes to make a serious dent in Republican control
of the house of delegates in 2009.
In addition to
high-profile associations, gay Democrats made formal
inroads after the marriage amendment, with the Virginia
Partisans Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club named as a
constituency group to the powerful Virginia Democratic
State Central Committee.
"We have a
seat at the table," says Conrad, the Virginia
Partisans president. "People are more willing
to talk about the issues."
Of course, many
of the gains made since 2006 do hinge on progress that
already had been under way before the marriage amendment.
Some say the success of Equality Virginia, the
statewide nonpartisan gay organization based in
Richmond, helped to mitigate the severity of the ballot
initiative loss, for one.
"A lot of
that hard work preceded the constitutional
amendment," says Jeff Trammell, who served as
the liaison to gay voters for the Gore and Kerry
presidential campaigns. "They got organized years
ago, before the constitutional amendment, and built an
infrastructure."
Trammell compares
the 57% of voters that passed the marriage ban in
Virginia with the 59% of voters who approved a similar ban
in Wisconsin in 2006. Moreover, had a 60% threshold
applied, like in Florida, where voters now are
considering their own marriage ban, the initiative would
have failed.
In many ways,
Equality Virginia, which raised around $1.5 million to
fight the amendment as part of the Commonwealth Coalition,
exceeded expectations.
"I think
the biggest thing that we were able to accomplish is that we
were able to change the tone, and that shouldn't be
underestimated in a state like Virginia," says
Dyana Mason, executive director of Equality Virginia.
"Our opponents were pretty confident and were
predicting that they would win with 70% of the
vote."
Mason adds that
passing antigay legislation has become more difficult in
the past few election cycles, and says that in the upcoming
legislative session the priority will be to pass a
bill to stop workplace discrimination for state
employees. Such legislation would codify the executive
order that originated with Governor Warner and was
reinforced by Governor Kaine, who is not eligible for
reelection in 2009.
As attention
turns to statewide races in the months ahead, the outcome of
the presidential election will likely impact the mood, just
as the marriage amendment experience from 2006 helped
set the tone of the present moment.
"I think
that the psychological effect of winning Virginia for Obama
is huge in terms of 2009," says Arlington
County's Fisette. "And that, in turn, will do a
lot in terms of practical, day-to-day and policy
decisions in Virginia."
