Group observes gay rights movement - Roanoke.com

Via Roanoke.com:

The event in Roanoke marked the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York.

By Jordan Fifer
  777-3523

About 20 people gathered in downtown Roanoke on Saturday to support gay rights, organizers said.

The third annual Stonewall Remembrance Rally was organized months ago but fell coincidentally the day after New York legislators passed a landmark bill legalizing gay marriage in that state.

The Stonewall riots of 1969, which took place in New York City, are often recognized as the beginning of the gay rights movement in America.

Half a dozen people spoke at the Roanoke event, which was held in Century Square between Kirk and Church avenues, said Betsy Parkins, 44, the founder of a networking group for professionals in Roanoke's gay community.

Parkins said the rally took on new meaning after the New York gay community's legal victory.

"To me, it's a sentimental moment in our work toward equality," she said of the bill's passage. "It's incredibly important."

With the New York bill signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state becomes the largest in the country to allow same-sex marriage. Five other states permit gay marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, plus the District of Columbia.

Virginia voters in 2006 ratified an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as "a union between one man and one woman."

Parkins, an account executive for a Roanoke advertising agency, said the gathering reaffirmed her hope that Virginia will one day allow gay marriage.

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• NY Gov. Cuomo signs gay marriage law (ajc.com)
• In New York, Jubilant Gay Community Rejoices (newser.com)

Fairfax County Virginia Gets First Gay Bar

photo courtesy of The Washington Post

Back in 1986 the non-profit that I worked for moved from Capital Hill to the sleepy little town of Herndon, Virginia located about 25 miles outside DC in what was then mostly rural Fairfax County. We set up operations in what was the very first office park in the town. I moved to neighboring Sterling and remember having to drive into the city any time I wanted to get back to my gay roots. It was a virtual gay no man's land.

In the two and a half decades since, Herndon, Reston, Sterling and the rest of Dulles Airport corridor in Fairfax County have seen an economic and developmental boom that have given the region a towering metropolitan skyline, miles upon miles of suburban sprawl and what's been called the worst rush hour traffic in the nation. But Northern Virginia is still Virginia and progress for our community has been stalled at every opportunity by religious fundamentalists and their political hacks.

The Washington Post did a great story this weekend about the first gay bar in Fairfax County history. So Addictive started out as a coffee house in an already over-caffeinated region. To ramp things up a bit, they started doing weekly Latin, Hip-Hop and Gay Nights. Now the establishment will be nearly exclusively gay, except for a weekly Heavy Metal Night.

The Post reports:

The arrival of a gay bar in the heart of a quintessentially suburban community nearly 25 miles outside of Washington is a milestone for the gay community. It's also a broader test to see whether a business that caters to gay men and lesbians can succeed and gain mainstream acceptance in a town that was once featured in a book on the 100 "Best Places to Raise Your Family" in the United States.

By flying a rainbow flag directly across from the old Herndon Town Hall on Elden Street, So Addictive already has become a key marker in the gay diaspora. Sarah Gustafson, president of the gay rights organization Equality Fairfax, recently e-mailed the 900 people on her list to announce the "fantastic news" that "yes, Virginia, there is a gay bar in Fairfax County."

"There's a tremendous amount of gay, lesbian and transsexual people who live in the county, so it's really great that a bar's coming to us," Gustafson said. "People might not realize there's a significant gay and lesbian population in the suburbs; everybody assumes we live downtown. But we are everywhere. We are your neighbors, and having a neighborhood bar finally puts a permanent face on that."