EV Celebrates with California

EV Thanks the GLBT Community and Allies for Another Successful Event

Equality Virginia thanks each and every person who attended or supported the Fifth Annual Commonwealth Dinner on Saturday, April 5, 2008.

With aproximately 1100 guests, we once again filled the ballroom of the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Congratulations to Arlington member Chuck Almquist, the winner of the 2008 Nissan Xterra, donated by Pence Auto!

Check back in the coming days for pictures, and Save the Date now for our Sixth Annual Commonwealth Dinner to celebrate EVs 20th Anniversary, scheduled for Saturday, April 4, 2009!

LGBT Standing United: Becoming More Inclusive

Join EV's Peninsula Community Action Team along with others sponsors for this important event to bring transgender and GLB activists and allies together to learn and dialogue.

When:  Saturday, April 12 from 9am-3pm
Where: Old Dominion University, Batten Arts and Letters Buildling in Norfolk

For more information, click here.

Co-sponsors include:  AIDS Care Center for Education and Support Servicers (ACCESS), Equality Virginia, Hampton Roads Business Outreach (HRBOR), Hampton Roads Pride, New Life MCC of Hampton Roads, ODU Multicultural Student Services, ODU Womens Center, Tidetwater AIDS Community Taskforce (TACT), Trans Rights of Virginia.

STOP AIDS: World AIDS Day December 1
Keep the Promise: Leadership

This year’s theme for World AIDS Day, "Keep the Promise: Leadership," promotes the idea that people across the globe have a responsibility to be leaders in the effort to stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic and support those living with HIV/AIDS. In the United States, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, southern states have the greatest number of people living with AIDS, AIDS deaths, and new AIDS diagnoses and 42% to 59% of people living with HIV/AIDS are not getting regular HIV care. 

Equality Virginia urges our members to participate in events around the Commonwealth, to get educated about HIV/AIDS issues, and to join the efforts to eliminate HIV/AIDS and support people living with HIV/AIDS in our communities. 

For more information: www.worldaidscampaign.info/,  www.hivplusmag.com, www.poz.com

For more information about Virginia resources: www.voraonline.org (Virginia Organizations Responding to AIDS)
 

9th Annual Day of Remembrance

Learn more about Equality Virginia Education Fund's Anti-Violence Project

Anti-Violence Project Survey Halfway to Goal
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Virginians Share Thoughts On and Experiences With Violence

As Domestic Violence Awareness Month comes to a close, Equality Virginia’s Education Fund’s Anti-Violence Project met the halfway point in its goal to collect 1000 surveys of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians regarding their experiences with and thoughts on domestic and sexual violence, related hate crimes and stalking. 

The Anti-Violence Project is gathering data and conducting focus groups and interviews across the state. The results will afford the Commonwealth an opportunity to explore the experiences and needs of a traditionally underserved group of people.

We still need your voice!  Click here to learn more and take the Anti-Violence Survey! All those living and working in Virginia are encouraged to participate.  You will also be entered to win one of five $100 gift cards!

Equality Virginia Signs onto Inclusive ENDA Letter

On Sunday, September 30, the Equality Virginia Board of Directors voted to sign onto a national community letter calling on the U.S. Congress to consider and pass a version of ENDA that includes both sexual orientation and gender identity, HR 2015.

To see a copy of this letter, additional action items, and the coalition list of over 100 state, regional and national organizations that have signed on in support of an inclusive ENDA, go to www.unitedenda.org.

Tell it: Don't Be Silent!

(September 19)  Discrimination and Hate Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people does happen in Virginia.  However, these acts often go unreported because people are afraid to report them or they do not know where to report them. 

You can report acts of discrimination and hate violence confidentially to Equality Virginia at www.equalityvirginia.org/tellit.

The LGBT community must start telling our stories of discrimination and hate violence and demand equal protection for ourselves and our families under the law.  Tell your story today!  

EVPAC Speaks Out on Anti-Gay Campaign Rhetoric
New Campaign Toolkit Available for Activists and Supporters

(August 20) Responding to some of the first reports of anti-gay rhetoric being used in this year's General Assembly elections, Equality Virginia Political Action Committee (EVPAC) has joined in a bi-partisan effort calling on all candidates to refrain from using campaign tactics that marginalize gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians.

After recently being made aware of a possible gay-baiting “poll” question in a Loudoun County House of Delegates race, EVPAC worked with its bi-partisan partners, the Virginia Partisans Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club and the Log Cabin Republican Club of Virginia in co-signing a letter sent to each candidate running for the House of Delegates and Senate. 

EVPAC also unveiled a Campaign Toolkit to provide resources to volunteers across the state.

Read more, download the Campaign Toolkit and copies of the letters today.  Click here.

Read the Washington Blade article on August 31 covering this letter.

EVEF's Amendment Watch Applauds New UVA Benefit

(June 25) Last week, the University of Virginia allowed all eligible faculty and staff members to add another adult household member to their gym membership, whether that be a partner, roommate, parent or adult child.

"This is a very small step forward for the University of Virginia community, and we congratulate those faculty members that have been lobbying for so long for this benefit," said Dyana Mason, Executive Director.  "Unfortunately, while the Attorney General supported such action, he cautioned against the university formally recognizing relationships between unmarried individuals as a possible violation of the so-called 'marriage amendment'. This contradicts his earlier position that the amendment would have no bearing on the rights of unmarried couples."

Read the new policy

Read the Attorney General's opinion

Read the Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial on the new benefit and the Attorney General's position.

On the Fortieth Anniversary of Loving v. Virginia
Guest Column by Kent Willis, Executive Director of the ACLU of Virginia

(June 12) - Forty years ago this week the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Virginia law that criminalized the marriage of Richard and Mildred Loving.

Richard was white and Mildred was black.  They had violated Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute and were banned not just from rural Caroline County, where they had met and fallen in love, but also the entire state of Virginia.

The Caroline County judge who in 1959 found them guilty of violating the Virginia Racial Integrity Act, wrote, "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents.  The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." Read more....