Local
Ralph Northam: Equality is the ‘sensible way to go’
Lieutenant gubernatorial candidate described E.W. Jackson’s comments as “divisive” and “offensive”
Ralph Northam (Photo courtesy of the Ralph Northam campaign)
“We need to look at Virginia as a business model,” Northam said before a campaign stop in Danville as he discussed efforts that would ban discrimination against LGBT state employees. “If you run a business… you need to be all inclusive. You can’t sit there and say well we’ll take you, but we don’t want to take others. When it comes to that type of model, you certainly want to welcome women, you want to welcome the LGBT community. You want to welcome all people to the commonwealth. That’s the attitude and the philosophy that we need if we’re going to continue to be successful here in Virginia.”
Northam, a pediatric neurologist who grew up on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, has represented the Sixth Senate District that includes portions of Norfolk and Virginia Beach since 2008.
He referenced his marriage to his wife of 27 years as he discussed his support of marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Northam told this Blade his work as a physician has also shaped his views on the issue. He used the example of a gay or lesbian who is unable to visit their partner of 25 years in the hospital or make medical decisions on their behalf to highlight what he described the need to extend marriage rights for same-sex couples
“That’s just downright wrong,” Northam said.
Northam also discussed an ex-military servicemember whom he said he met during his 2011 re-election campaign.
He told the Blade the man asked him about his position on marriage rights for same-sex couples. Northam said the man began to cry after he began to explain his support of the issue because his son had come out to him as gay the week before and he did not know how to react.
“Marriage equality and equality’s for all people,” Northam said. “It’s just the sensible way to go in my view.”
Northam: Jackson’s comments are ‘divisive’ and ‘very offensive’
A poll that Roanoke College released on Oct. 30 showed Northam ahead of his Republican opponent, E.W. Jackson, by a 48-32 percent margin. A Washington Post/Abt SRBI survey unveiled earlier this week indicated he was ahead of Jackson by a 52-39 percent margin.
LGBT rights advocates and Democrats have repeatedly criticized Jackson, who is a minister from Chesapeake, for comparing gay men to pedophiles and describing them as “very sick people.” The Richmond Times-Dispatch in September reported that Jackson said during a speech at a Shenandoah County church that he disagrees with Pope Francis’ suggestion the Roman Catholic Church has grown “obsessed” with marriage rights for same-sex couples, abortion and contraception.
Jackson sought to distance himself from his anti-gay comments during interviews with Bruce DePuyt of News Channel 8 and other D.C. and Virginia television stations.
“Those types of comments are what I find and I think a lot of Virginians find ery offensive,” Northam told the Blade. “They’re divisive and there’s no place for them in the Senate of Virginia. And I don’t think there’s any place for them in Virginia.”
He also criticized Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who continues to trail former Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race, over his opposition to same-sex marriage and other LGBT-specific issues.
Northam further pointed out state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg), who is running against state Sen. Mark Herring (D-Loudoun) to succeed Cuccinelli as attorney general, left the Senate floor when he and his colleagues earlier this year voted to approve gay Richmond Circuit Court Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland’s judgeship.
The Virginia House of Delegates in May 2012 blocked Thorne-Begland’s nomination after state Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) claimed the then-Richmond prosecutor misrepresented himself when he failed to disclose his sexual orientation when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the late 1980s.
“People of Virginia need to know… that [lawmakers] need to be more open-minded when it comes to taking care of all Virginians,” Northam said.
Baltimore
This John Waters interview has been edited for readability — but perhaps not human decency
Pope of Trash dishes on Trump, plane etiquette, last meal, and more
By WESLEY CASE | At 80 years old, John Waters is still the ideal dinner guest — incisively sharp, quick-witted and funny as hell.
The chic Baltimore native proved it again and again in a recent Zoom interview, calling from his summer home in Provincetown, Mass.
The occasion was the Blu-ray releases of two of his movies — the 1977 dark comedy “Desperate Living” and his enduring 1988 musical “Hairspray” — on June 23 by the Criterion Collection, which publishes restorations of films it deems culturally important. The Criterion stamp of approval has become the gold standard among cinephiles.
“It’s like getting an award,” said Waters, who wrote and directed both films.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
D.C. Council approves expanded grant funding for Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs
Measure introduced by Zachary Parker faces second vote
The D.C. Council on June 9 gave its first round of approval to an amendment to the city’s fiscal year 2027 budget that calls for increasing the number and size of funding grants that the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs provides for local organizations providing services for the LGBTQ community.
The amendment, titled the “LGBTQ Community Grant Amendment Act of 2026,” was introduced by D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member.
The amendment calls for the LGBTQ Affairs office to issue a $980,000 grant in fiscal year 2027 to a private, nonprofit organization in partnership with the office “for the purpose of supporting programs that promote the welfare of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community.”
The organization would also initiate its own fundraising effort to expand the amount of funds beyond the amount the office would provide, enabling it to provide larger grants to a greater number of local LGBTQ organizations.
Among other things, the amendment says the organization chosen for this new role should have a “proven track record of success in grant making and fundraising” and agree to undergo an annual audit and submit quarterly reports to the office on its use of the funds it receives.
Under its rules for approving legislation, the Council must hold the second vote on the budget bill with the Parker amendment before it is sent to Mayor Muriel Bowser for her signature. It must then go to Congress for a congressional review that does not require approval, but could result in a vote to disapprove the measure, an action Congress usually does not take.
In a June 12 statement, the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition called the D.C. Council’s initial approval of the Parker amendment, “a historic measure that establishes the District’s most sustainable model for a vehicle for investing in LGBTQ communities.”
The statement adds, “The legislation arrives at a critical moment, as LGBTQ-serving organizations face unprecedented uncertainty. Growing demand for services is colliding with shrinking resources, federal attacks on LGBTQ programs, and ongoing threats to local funding streams.”
It says the new program that the Parker amendment would create, if it reaches final approval, “creates a durable mechanism to protect and expand investments in the organizations that thousands of District residents rely upon every day.”
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said he was looking into the mayor’s position on the Parker amendment but didn’t immediately get back with a response.
Virginia
Gay 1920s-era Hollywood star to be honored in Staunton, Va.
Billy Haines became acclaimed designer after anti-gay policies ended his acting career
A project is underway in Staunton, Va., to honor William ‘Billy’ Haines, who was born and raised in Staunton before becoming an out gay 1920s and early 1930s-era Hollywood movie star whose acting career ended around 1934 when he refused demands that he conceal his sexual orientation and end his relationship with his male partner.
Haines left the movie business around that time to start what became a highly successful interior design and furniture business in Los Angeles that he led until his death in 1972 at age 72, and which remains in business today, according to the Arcadia Project, a Staunton-based nonprofit initiative.
In a statement released last month, Arcadia Project announced it is working to revitalize a long-vacant movie theater in downtown Staunton that it plans to rename after Haines. It says a fundraising campaign is under way to support efforts to reopen the theater and the larger building in which it is housed as a “dynamic mixed-use cultural center.”
The statement notes that Haines left Staunton at age 14 and resided in Hopewell, Va., and Greenwich Village in New York City until 1922, when he was “discovered” by a talent scout and sent to Hollywood.
“Between 1922 and 1934, Haines appeared in 54 movies during his meteoric and highly successful career,” the Arcadia Project statement continues, noting he transitioned from silent movies to talkies and was fully open about being gay. “But when Hollywood’s moral crackdown of the 1930s demanded that he end his relationship with his longtime partner Jimmie Shields, Haines refused,” it says.
“For LGBTQ people – then and now – Haines’s choice resonates deeply. Rather than deny who he was, he reinvented himself as an interior designer to the stars,” according to the statement.
It says he helped invent the so-called Hollywood Regency style home and designed homes for Hollywood legends such as Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, George Cukor, and Jack Warner as well as for political figures like Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California.
“As there is no monument, marker or public recognition for Haines in his hometown of Staunton, Va., Arcadia Project, in collaboration with the LGBTQ+ community in Staunton seeks to commemorate him inside a new cultural center,” the statement says.
It quotes Arcadia Project Executive Director Pamela Mason Wagner as saying, “Naming the movie theater in Haines’ honor is more than an act of historical recognition – it is a powerful statement about visibility, belonging, and whose stories are valued in our community.”
The statement says project leaders hope to open the cultural center in early 2027, with a fundraising campaign seeking to raise $250,000 to renovate the theater.
“If the full goal is not reached, a smaller space within the building will be named for Haines, scaled to the amount of funds raised,” it says. “We truly hope friends and admirers of Billy Haines everywhere will want to participate.”
Donations for the project can be made through this site: www.thearcadiaproject.org
Calif. governor’s race spotlights Becerra’s LGBTQ advocacy
UFC fighter says ‘Michelle Obama is a man’ at White House event
This John Waters interview has been edited for readability — but perhaps not human decency
There is no Pride in detention
PHOTOS: Pride on the Pier
Gay 1920s-era Hollywood star to be honored in Staunton, Va.
Blade reporters reflect on covering Pulse massacre 10 years ago
Vote Kenyan McDuffie for D.C. mayor
Your queer D.C. voting guide
