Local
Poll shows McAuliffe maintains slight lead over Cuccinelli
Virginia gubernatorial candidates to debate in McLean on Sept. 25
Terry McAuliffe (center) at an Equality Virginia fundraiser in Arlington, Va. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
A new poll shows former Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe continues to maintain a slight lead over Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the commonwealth’s gubernatorial race.
The survey of 1,005 likely Virginia voters that Quinnipiac University conducted between Sept. 9-15 found McAuliffe ahead of Cuccinelli by a 44-41 percent margin. Seven percent of respondents said they support Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Robert Sarvis.
The Quinnipiac University survey comes on the heels of a Rasmussen Reports survey that found McAuliffe ahead of Cuccinelli by a 45-38 percent margin.
A poll that Public Policy Polling conducted on behalf of the League of Conservation Voters between Aug. 27-28 found McAuliffe ahead of Cuccinelli by a 44-37 percent margin. Nine percent of respondents said they support Sarvis.
“We never put much stock in a single poll, but with more than half of Virginians finding Cuccinelli and his extreme social agenda unfavorable everyone should expect to see the Cuccinelli campaign become more and more desperate in the final weeks of the campaign,” McAuliffe campaign spokesperson Josh Schwerin told the Washington Blade.
Cuccinelli campaign spokesperson Anna Nix noted the race remains close.
“As voters learn more about Ken Cuccinelli’s record of fighting for Virginia and Terry McAuliffe’s record of putting himself first at the expense of workers, they are going side with the attorney general,” she told the Blade. “With each passing day, the energy and enthusiasm on the ground in support of Cuccinelli grows and with less than 50 days, our campaign is working to deliver victory on Nov. 5.”
Quinnipiac University released its survey two days after Cuccinelli and McAuliffe filed their latest campaign finance reports.
Cuccinelli reported he raised $5,687,527.04 between July 1 and Aug. 31 and spent $6,106,440.89 over the same period. His campaign finance report also indicates the Republican Governors Association made $3,740,132.44 in in-kind contributions to his campaign during the same period.
McAuliffe reported his campaign raised $7,355,246.09 between July 1 and Aug. 31, and spent $8,357,719.66 during the same period. His campaign finance report notes the DNC’s Political Party Committee made $15,618.84 in in-kind contributions to his effort to defeat Cuccinelli between July 1 and Aug. 31.
McAuliffe’s campaign finance report also indicates Planned Parenthood Virginia, the NextGen Climate Action Committee, the Service Employees International Union and the Sierra Club are among the groups that have also contributed to his campaign.
Gay advocates continue to criticize Cuccinelli
Virginia Democrats and LGBT rights advocates have repeatedly criticized Cuccinelli; Republican lieutenant gubernatorial candidate E.W. Jackson and state Sen. Mark Obenshein (R-Harrisonburg,) who is running for attorney general, over their opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples and other gay-specific issues.
Chief Justice John Roberts last month denied Cuccinelli’s request to place a stay on a three-judge panel’s March ruling that struck down Virginia’s anti-sodomy statute while the U.S. Supreme Court considers his appeal of it. Cuccinelli said during a debate against McAuliffe in July that Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour moderated that his “personal beliefs about the personal challenge of homosexuality haven’t changed.”
Cuccinelli last October also spoke at an anti-gay marriage rally at a Manassas church to which the Blade was denied access.
“When I knock on doors in Northern Virginia, it is clear to me that voters are starting to pay attention,” state Del. Rob Krupicka (D-Alexandria) told the Blade on Wednesday. “I regularly hear about women’s rights and equality from voters concerned about how our state is perceived in the rest of the country.”
State Del. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax,) who in January introduced a bill that would have repealed Virginia’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, echoed Krupicka.
“Ken Cuccinelli has worn his crusades against women, the LGBT community, immigrants, the environment, and the federal government on his sleeve for the last decade and especially for the last four years,” Surovell told the Blade in response to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. “His ticketmates have stood by recent comments that gays are ‘ikky,’ ‘wrong and unacceptable,’ and ‘very sick people.’ It is obvious to anyone in Virginia that this is the most ideologically extreme ticket we have ever seen in Virginia and it is showing in the polls.”
Gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) agreed.
“The general electorate is just starting to tune in, as is typical after Labor Day,” he said. “While lots of people know that Ken Cuccinelli is against equality, we have to make sure everyone knows.”
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Sept. 25 will moderate a Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce-sponsored debate between McAuliffe and Cuccinelli in McLean.
Arts & Entertainment
Washington Blade’s Pride on the Pier and fireworks show returning June 8
The annual Pride on the Pier Fireworks Show presented by the Leonard-Litz Foundation will take place on Saturday, June 8 at 9 p.m.
The Washington Blade, in partnership with LURe DC and The Wharf, is excited to announce the 5th annual Pride on the Pier and fireworks show during D.C. Pride weekend on Saturday, June 8, 2024, from 2-10 p.m.
The event will include the annual Pride on the Pier Fireworks Show presented by the Leonard-Litz Foundation at 9 p.m.
Pride on the Pier extends the city’s annual celebration of LGBTQ visibility to the bustling Southwest waterfront with an exciting array of activities and entertainment for all ages. The District Pier will offer DJs, dancing, drag, and other entertainment. Alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase for those 21 and older. Local DJ’s Heat, Eletrox and Honey will perform throughout the event.
3 p.m. – Capital Pride Parade on the Big Screen
3:30 p.m. – Drag Show hosted by Cake Pop!
9 p.m. – Fireworks Show Presented by Leonard-Litz Foundation
The event is free and open to the public. The Dockmasters Building will be home to a VIP experience. To learn more and to purchase tickets go to www.prideonthepier.com/vip. VIP tickets are limited.
Event sponsors include Absolut, Buying Time, Capital Pride, DC Brau, DC Fray, Burney Wealth Management, Infinate Legacy, Leonard-Litz Foundation, Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, MISTR, NBC4, The Wharf. More information regarding activities will be released at www.PrideOnThePier.com
Maryland
Trone discusses transgender niece
Blade interviewed Md. congressman, Angela Alsobrooks last week
Editor’s note: The Washington Blade last week interviewed both U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. The full interviews with both Democratic candidates for retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)’s seat will be on the Blade’s website later this week.
Maryland Congressman David Trone last week discussed his transgender niece during an interview with the Washington Blade about his U.S. Senate campaign.
Trone, who is running to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), on May 1 told the Blade during a telephone interview that his niece transitioned when she was in her early 20s. Trone also noted she attended Furman University, a small, liberal arts university in Greenville, S.C.
“I was concerned about how she would be able to transition there,” said Trone.
Trone, who founded Total Wine & More, attended Furman University as an undergrad and is on the school’s board of trustees. Trone told the Blade he donated $10 million to the university to “build out their mental health capacity, which I felt was a way that she could have the best mental health care possible when she worked her way through (her) transition.”
Trone’s niece graduated from the university after she spent five years there.
“She had a great relationship with Furman,” said Trone.
Trone and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are the leading Democrats running to succeed Cardin. The winner of the May 14 Democratic primary will face former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in November.
District of Columbia
200 turn out for ’Love Fest’ Drag Story Hour at Freddie’s
Performer reads stories to kids and parents as three protest outside
Between 200 and 250 people, including parents and their children, turned out on Saturday, May 4, for a “Love Fest” Drag Story Hour brunch hosted by the Arlington, Va., LGBTQ establishment Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant.
Local drag performer Tara Hoot, who read children’s stories and handed out coloring books to the kids attending the event, was joined by members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, which sang several songs before Hoot began reading from children’s books in keeping with the tradition of drag queens conducting Drag Story Hour events across the country.
The May 4 event at Freddie’s in the Crystal City section of Arlington took place four weeks after the start of a similar event hosted by Freddie’s was delayed by a bomb threat, forcing those who had arrived to exit through a rear door and wait in a parking lot as Arlington police conducted a search of the premises with a bomb sniffing dog. No trace of a bomb was found.
All the customers, including parents and their kids, were invited back inside and the show took place as planned.
No similar threat occurred at the May 4 event. But three male protesters assembled on the sidewalk next to the parking lot behind the Freddie’s building, with one of them shouting from a bullhorn passages from his Bible that he said indicated the Drag Story Hour event was an “abomination.”
The three protesters were outnumbered by nearly a dozen counter protesters who were members of the Rainbow Defense Coalition, an LGBTQ organization. They carried bright, rainbow-colored umbrellas while chanting messages of support for the Drag Story Hour event.
Freddie Lutz, Freddie’s Beach Bar owner, called the event a “smashing success” that brought an “outpouring of love from the community.” Lutz released a flier on social media promoting the Love Fest event shortly after the earlier event interrupted by the bomb threat as a showing of love “to stop the hate.”
“Join us for the next story time brunch dressed in your favorite rainbow/hippie outfit” and “carry your favorite homemade signs of support,” Lutz said in his promotional flier. He came to the event dressed in what he called his hippie protest outfit.
Lutz said while the protesters did not interrupt the event, he was concerned that their shouting was scaring some of the kids as they and their parents walked by the protesters to enter Freddie’s.
“I went out back and tried to talk to one of them and it was kind of like talking to a brick wall,” Lutz told the Washington Blade. “He was screaming at the parents that were crossing their kids on the crosswalk,” Lutz said. “And I said, you’re screaming at those kids, you’re scaring them.”
Lutz said the man told him he was yelling at the parents, not the kids. “And I said, no you’re not. The kids are hearing you. You’re scaring them.”
Added Lutz, “And to have such a fun-loving, happy show and then walk out on the sidewalk to that is very disheartening. It’s really sad. I told him my God is a forgiving and loving God.”
One of the protesters, who declined to disclose his name, said he and his two fellow protesters came to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“We want them to know this is an abomination to the Lord,” he told the Blade. “We want them to know those children don’t have a voice and they’re being brainwashed in there. We’re here to call out their sin.”
Stephanie Krenrich, who brought her two-year-old daughter to the event, said she strongly disputes the claims of the protesters.
“I brought my daughter here because I think that it was a beautiful and wonderful show, and it was great for her,” she said. “And I think it’s pretty offensive when people come to Arlington and tell parents what to do, especially for something so beautiful and so fun and so wholesome,” she told the Blade.
“So that’s why I brought her,” Krenrich said. “I think that it’s really important that we stand up for our values and people just being themselves, being happy and being them.”
Among those who attended the event were four elected officials from Arlington – Virginia State Sen. Barbara Favola, Virginia State Del. Adele McClure, Arlington County Board member Maureen Coffee, and Arlington and Falls Church State’s Attorney Parisa Dehgani-Tafti.
Also attending was Nick Benton, editor and publisher of the LGBTQ supportive Falls Church, Va., News Press; and Kellen McBeth, president of the LGBTQ group Equality Arlington.
“It was fantastic to see so many people come out to support Freddie’s, to support the LGBTQ+ community,” McBeth said. “It was a great event and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
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