By Brian Reach on Jul 30, 2014 04:49 pm
Until the 21-day waiting period is over, show your support for #MarriageEquality in the Commonwealth by joining our #NoStayVA campaign! Change your facebook profile pictures now!
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By Brian Reach on Jul 30, 2014 04:46 pm
Join NOVA Pride and other LGBT organizations for a meetup this Friday in Arlington! 6:30pm - 8:30pm at Pinzimini Lounge at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Ballston
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By Kyle Rohen on Jul 29, 2014 04:41 pm
Good afternoon, and welcome to This Week in LGBT! We'll dive right in to the news after our standard disclaimer. As stated before, this article is written by Kyle Rohen, VP of NOVA Pride. It's written as a hybrid fact/commentary blog and may include snark, shade, and personal opinions of the author and is not intended to be representative of anyone's opinion other than the author. Feel free to sound off on the NOVA Pride Facebook page, tweeting NOVA Pride, using hashtag #TWILKyle, or by emailing me at kyle@novapride.org.
Yesterday, in a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Fourth Circuit of Appeals ruled on the Bostic v Rainey case and found that Virginia's constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman was unconstitutional. In addition, they ruled that strict scrutiny must apply to sexual orientation (more on that discussed here yesterday toward the bottom of that blog), which is absolutely incredible. It's a huge win for justice, for Virginia, and for the rest of the Fourth Circuit (West Virginia, both Carolinas, and Maryland are covered by this Circuit, and only Maryland previously recognized and granted marriage equality). Marriages cannot begin until at least August 18th to give the defendants time to decide if they're going to appeal the case. Officially, this isn't a stay, it's more of a waiting period while the other side decides what they're going to do. Today, instead of my usual diatribe concerning quirky news bits and loads of opinion, I figured I'd yield my time and space to talking about three Northern Virginia couples who are directly affected by the decision and what it means to them. Claudia and Teresa Elias have been together for six years. They married nearly a year ago (in fact, their one year anniversary is August 6th, so Happy Anniversary, ladies!) in D.C. They are raising three children together here in Virginia. Claudia says that she and her wife are "hopeful that VA will finally become the state for lovers as they have always claimed to be." With momentum on our side, it would appear that we are on the precipice of that happening. Claudia highlighted some of the issues that many same-sex couples with valid marriage licenses have experienced while living in Virginia. While their marriage license was valid enough to get Teresa's last name changed on her Social Security card (and additionally would work to change other forms of federal identification), it remains a road block to getting her name changed on her Virginia identification, which can lead to issues when attempting to prove one's identity. She also stated that their children are aware that their mothers are married in less than half of the country. However, Claudia and Teresa are excited to be at a point where their love and rights will finally be validated in the state they call home.
Claudia and Teresa Elias and their beautiful children
Carlos Canales and Trace Stokes have been together for nine years. Residents of Sterling, they got married in Maryland last year after a voter referendum to permit same-sex marriage passed in November 2012. The couple are looking forward to receiving the benefits of state-side marriage, including joint filing of all taxes (in anti-equality states, the process to file as married federally but single in the state can be daunting and can often result in spending a lot of extra cash) as well as the ability to share health benefits through their companies (even for companies which have domestic partnership benefits, the spouse enjoying their partner's insurance must pay taxes on the benefits provided by the company). They are thrilled to hear that Virginia's marriage ban has been overturned.
Carlos Canales and Trace Stokes enjoying life
Kyle Rohen and Seth Koberg-Rohen (hey, that's me and my husband!) first met nine years ago in college through mutual friends. Though we started off painfully slow (Seth was still working through his sexuality), our love and mutual respect has gotten us to the point that we're at now - married for three years come this August 20th. We married in DC, like a lot of other Virginia LGBT's, and figured it would be a solid decade before recognition would come to the Commonwealth. Following last year's Windsor case, our timeline was pushed up - to 2018. However, the watershed movement in gay marriage cases around the country has been absolutely awe-inspiring, and we are ecstatic that Seth's native home and my adoptive home (I'm a Louisiana native) will finally see us as equal citizens.
Kyle Rohen and Seth Koberg-Rohen celebrate at the 2014 Capital Pride Parade
What's next for us LGBT Virginians? We're still waiting until at least August 18th to see if the defendants in this case will file for an appeal and if they'll be granted a stay. If they file for an appeal, they'll likely be given the stay - which is fine. In fact, thanks to the strict scrutiny given to sexual orientation in this ruling, having this appealed to the Supreme Court might be exactly what we need - a case where sexual orientation is enshrined in law by the Supreme Court as an immutable characteristic on par with race or national origin. I leave you now with the promise of a better tomorrow. There is a bright future ahead of us, even if marriage equality is far from the last step in ensuring we as LGBT's are treated as equals. Also, major props to Mikey Fernandez for recording this video of Brian and myself last night on ABC7 News! That's it for This Week in LGBT, See You Next Tuesday!
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