My congress critter, Congressman Moran, was at the office where I work for about an hour today. At the end of his visit he took questions from us. I asked him about the chances of getting the hate crimes bill and the employment non-discrimination act through congress were. He didn’t seem optimistic because of a threatened veto by Bush.
Last night, before a national audience, six Democratic presidential candidates participated in a forum that was televised on Logo. It wasn’t a debate; the candidates were on the stage individually being questioned by a panel. They weren’t asked the same questions though there was a fair amount of overlap.
Two Democratic candidates didn’t participate because of scheduling conflicts.
HB1727 has an innocuous title: “School boards; policies concerning non-curriculum-related student organizations,’ but when you see what it says and who introduced it and take a look at some recent history, it is revealed for what it really is: an attempt to keep students from participating in Gay-Straight Alliances at school.
Now that a week has gone by and I’ve been able to put the slightest bit of emotional distance between what sanity remains to me and Election Day, I thought I might relate some of the encounters I had with people at the polls. For the most part it was a positive experience. People in Reston are definitely supporters of diversity!
I want to thank all of my friends who came out to vote yesterday. These people stood against hatred, bigotry, intolerance and stood up for equality, tolerance and acceptance. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be the typical Virginian. I’ve always thought my friends were special, but I didn’t realize just how blessed I was to know them until yesterday.
On Friday, October 27th, the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations and the Fairfax Committee of 100 co-sponsored a debate about Question #1, the Marshall/Newman “marriage” Amendment at the Fairfax Government Center.
