By: Equality Virginia holds annual lobby day | Gay News | Washington Blade - America's Leading Gay News Source

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:02:39 +0000

[...] 701 by a 24-16 vote margin. The Republican-controlled House of Delegates on Jan. 15 overwhelmingly approved gay interim Richmond Circuit Court Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland’s judgeship after blocking his nomination during a late-night vote last May that sparked outrage among LGBT [...]

By: Michael Bedwell

Michael Bedwell — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:03:51 +0000

Tracy is one of the greatest heroes in the long fight to end the military ban. Unlike others later who would hide behind fake names, never showing their faces until after repeal, in May of 1992, when he was only 25, Tracy, a highly rated Navy Lt. and “Top Gun,” outed himself on national TV, the same day a similar hero, Navy Petty Officer Keith Meinhold did, and within hours the Navy removed his “call sign” from the side of his plane. This was even before Bill Clinton had secured the Party’s nomination, though some efforts were already underway in Congress to overturn the pre-DADT ban. Like Leonard Matlovich years before, he and Keith were among the very few to ever volunteer to challenge the policy, followed by Zoe Dunning, Justin Elzie, and Joe Zunigao in 1993. Tracy was the first officer. The next spring, he was one of several gay vets on the five-week, 32-city cross-country bus Tour of Duty to drum up public support. He was one of two against the ban out of 17 witnesses that demagogue Sam Nunn allowed to testify before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at Norfolk Naval Base, a process Tracy aptly characterized as Nunn’s dog and pony show where he was jeered by 1000 sailors and Marines. To wild applause and laughter, infamous racist Senator Strom Thurmond told him, "Your lifestyle is not normal. It's not normal for a man to want to be with a man or a woman with a woman,” asking if he had ever “considered getting help from a medical or psychiatric standpoint.” A court reinstated him after his discharge but, despite his exemplary record and the millions of dollars spent to train him, he was discharged again under DADT, the Supreme Court refusing to hear his appeal, while Keith’s court-ordered reinstatement was not appealed beyond the Circuit level.

Comments on: BREAKING: Va. House of Delegates confirms gay judge

By: Equality Virginia holds annual lobby day | Gay News | Washington Blade - America's Leading Gay News Source

By: Michael Bedwell