While the The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law reports that Virginia is 4% gay (NoVA is 7%, DC, 8%), a new poll by the Washington Post reports that 53% of Virginia voters say they would back a same-sex marriage ban. A same sex marriage & civil union ban that would constitutionally deny legal rights to gay couples in any type of contract.
(As an aside, the Federal Defense of Marriage Act is now bringing that pain home to the House – former Mass. Rep. Gerry Studds’s widower male spouse Dean Hara, cannot collect on Studds’ pension.)
Same sex marriage ban or not, Virginia continues to repress in ways many and small. Last week Manassas joined the anti-gay by denying an application for a home-based massage therapy business.
While that in of itself wouldn’t be much, according to the WashPost, the Manassas City Council has received two applications for home-based massage therapy businesses in the past three years, approving both, until Howard Daniel, who is gay, applied.
After nearly two dozen people protested, none who live on his street or even in his neighborhood, but are affiliated with Manassas’s All Saints Catholic Church, the council members balked and voted instead to consider changing the city’s zoning laws.
No word if Mr. Daniel balked at living with such small-mindedness, and got smart, moving north of the Potomac.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
