Virginia B&B rejects gays, couple claims

The Stafford House in Fairfax has refused to reserve a room for a married gay couple “because they are of the same gender.” The B&B doesn’t accept “non-traditional couples,” the couple was told. A similar recent case in England led to a court ruling in favor of the couple who were turned away.

Stafford House. (Pic | site)

That outcome isn’t likely in a state where anti-gay discrimination is legal and supported by the state’s attorney general, one of whose first official acts was to loudly announce that he doesn’t like gay people. He did so in the form of a letter to university presidents “informing” them of Virginia’s many discriminatory laws. I’ve discussed this before, and in response some have argued, as DJ Spiker recently did in AltDaily, that Ken Cuccinelli’s letter was nothing more than an honest effort to convey an understanding of a law that just happens to be based in animus.

In most cases there’s no direct correlation between one gay suicide and one instance of bigotry or hate speech. When a politician puts pen to paper to tell us that an irrational dislike of gays will inform his job performance for the next four years, a lot of gay kids probably don’t even hear about it. And the fraction who do hear are used to encountering such tripe from sources far and wide. So maybe (let’s hope) they don’t dwell on it for more than a moment.

In WG Sebald’s The Emigrants, a doctor at a derelict sanatorium speaks of his “recurring dream of [its] collapse. … I know that the woodwork, the roof beams, door posts and paneling, the floorboards and staircases, the rails and banisters, the lintels and ledges, have already been hollowed out under the surface, and that at any moment, as soon as the chosen one amongst the blind armies of beetles dispatches the very last, scarcely material resistance with its jaws, the entire lot will come down. And that is precisely what does happen in my dream, before my very eyes, infinitely slowly, and a great yellowish cloud billows out and disperses, and where the sanatorium once stood there is merely a heap of powder-fine wood dust, like pollen.”

I think discrimination can work that way. One quantum of hatred, doled out by one small-minded politician, or peer or parent or teacher, can function like the chosen beetle in Sebald’s army, feeding with other beetles on interior woodwork bit by bit until the structure is hollow and, in a few cases, cannot hold.

Maybe if you’re straight and you hate taxes, it’s easy to tell yourself that voting for anti-gay politicians doesn’t harm anyone. I’m not talking about the B&B anymore—obviously the couple in question lived to see another day—but about the anti-gay attitudes that thrive at the heart of our government because a crucial segment of voters don’t care. Some of these voters might not consciously have anything against gays, yet they elect an attorney general who strongly dislikes us. This in turn helps certain kids—between four and ten percent, depending whom you ask—grow up to believe there’s no place for them, adulthood will bring no refuge, the world belongs to other people.

For what it’s worth, the Stafford House has “changed its policy and will no longer bar anyone from making a reservation.” I doubt gays will trample each other in a stampede to reserve rooms there; still, it’s progress. But at least as noteworthy is the owner’s statement “that the prior policy of Stafford House was within the letter of all relevant state and local housing laws.”

Investigation reveals depth of Chick-Fil-A’s ties to anti-gay causes

Chick-Fil-A has given Focus on the Family and other anti-gay hate groups $1.1 million. This apparently helps Chick-Fil-A fulfill its “mission statement,” displayed on a plaque at corporate headquarters: “TO GLORIFY GOD BY BEING A FAITHFUL STEWARD OF ALL THAT IS ENTRUSTED TO US. TO HAVE A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON ALL WHO COME IN CONTACT WITH CHICK-FIL-A.”

Cluck.

As the blog Human Religion notes, “Twenty-five thousand or more [Chick-Fil-A factory chickens at a time] are packed into warehouses where there is no room to move. There, they are forced to live in their own excrement, among the corpses of their fellow creatures who have died from suffocation, heart attacks and other stresses. But there are so many that the premature death of some of them, and the loss of their flesh as a commodity, are just considered part of the overhead of running this kind of a business.”

One of my favorite things about Norfolk is that, thanks to PETA, there’s a huge number of vegan menu items at restaurants. Next time you feel the urge to eat Chick-Fil-A, eat fake chicken at Yorgo’s or La Bella or Kotobuki instead. It will make you feel like a faithful steward of all that’s entrusted to us.

Evening with Cuccinelli and Black

Last night Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli held a fundraising event with Dick Black called “Evening with Cuccinelli and Black.” Making fun of people’s names is a cheap trick, nothing more than an ad hominem attack, so I’ll keep mum on my idea for a better event title.

Who is Dick Black? He’s known for saying such things as “Children that have a homosexual parent, approximately 29% of children are molested by that parent. That contrasts with 0.6% of normal parents….a fifty-to-one increase in risk for molestation.” Who is Ken Cuccinelli? He’s known for saying such things as “I strongly endorse Dick Black for State Senate.”

Cuccinelli has no endorsement for ’12 U.S. Senate, will not run (for now)

It’s Dick Black or nothing for the A.G., who won’t currently endorse in the Republican primary race for Senator Webb’s seat. Also Cuccinelli has joined the elite cadre of politicians who can make headlines just by reiterating that they’re not running for whatever election is coming down the pike.

Should Kaine fear Scott using an obscure VA law?

If Bobby Scott decides to run for every election coming down the pike, Virginia law apparently will allow it.

Gov. McDonnell vetoes school physical education bill

It’s not every day that a prominent Republican comes down firmly against state-sponsored torture, but that’s what Bob McDonnell did with his veto pen yesterday.

Republicans want ‘In God We Trust’ emblazoned on 9,000 federal buildings

Cost of putting “In God We Trust” on 9,000 federal buildings, as Republicans hope to do: $100 million. Cost of the eternity in heaven granted to inhabitants of places where “In God We Trust” is on the buildings: priceless.

Radtke’s website offers alternative George Allen history

In the alternative history, former Senator George Allen wore a Confederate flag pin on his breast pocket rather than on his collar, hung his vintage noose at home rather than at work, and affixed a dog head rather than a deer head to a black family’s mailbox.

Virginia Public Access Project

A key leader in the coal industry has just donated $100,000 to Gov. McDonell’s PAC.

State offers naming rights to highway rest stops

Say hello to the Black Lung Disease Rest Area.

Norfolk grassroots training

If $100,000 coal-industry donations to McDonnell don’t thrill you, go to the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Norfolk grassroots training next weekend. Also there is Newport News grassroots training. Both will be held at union halls, which I guess we’re lucky to have even two of in this “right-to-work” state.

Interactive: Virginia Beach’s plan to transform the city

It makes me feel good to link to this proposed light-rail map every few months.

Explaining health-care reform

On the Affordable Care Act’s first birthday, Ezra Klein reminds us what health care reform really does.

Happiness engineering

This advice on how to be happy is a week old but still worth linking to.

Nearly half of US population is covered by same-sex relationship recognition

A study from Equality Matters shows 42% of Americans live in states “that provide some form of recognition for same-sex couples,” and another 2.5% of Americans live in Virginia.