virginia tech

The Advocate continues its coverage of four swing states this week with Virginia, a traditionally red state where some recent polls give Sen. Barack Obama a dougle-digit advantage. Today's story is the first of four pieces focusing on the state's political dynamics, LGBT concerns, and how it all will play out on Election Day.

With Barack Obama making Virginia look like it might just go blue in 2008, things are slowly improving for the LGBT community throughout the state. But with the state still not recognizing civil unions or domestic partnerships -- nevermind marriage -- Equality Virginia's Molly McClintock recognizes they still have a long way to go.

Another student shot at a Northern Illinois University lecture hall has died, raising the toll to seven, including the gunman, who had graduated from the school and had been considered a good student, officials said Friday. The shooting was the latest in a spate of attacks in U.S. schools and universities, including the shooting of a gender-nonconforming student at an Oxnard, Calif., junior high school who has since been declared brain-dead; a 17-year-old accused of shooting and critically wounding a fellow student Monday during a high school gym class in Memphis, Tenn.; and a woman who shot two fellow students to death before committing suicide at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge late last week.