File Under: Glad We Moved

Ben, you don't have to tell me about my retrograde birth state. Virginia is the kind of place where the same legislator who decries red-light cameras as "an unwarranted intrusion" is also a workhorse of anti-gay legislation. Such is the weird inner conflict between the Commonwealth's anti-tax, pro-gun libertarian streak and its faith-based governmental nannyism. (The right to bear arms is in the Bible, right?)

Yep, it's that wonderful time of the year again -- two months of the calendar when delegates and state sentators assemble in Richmond and then trip all over themselves to see who can produce the most, and the nastiest, legislation to undermine the rights of gay people as citizens. (And especially gay couples.) In recognition of this season of malcontent, Metro Weekly turns over the cover story to a transplanted Washingtonian who poignantly explains what life is like in "Hostile Territory."

Quite a contrast from the domestic partnership rights bill now pending before the DC city council, which would grant several additional marriage rights to registered gay families -- without calling it marriage or a civil union. (Don't count on President Bush's alleged tolerance for democratically enacted partnership laws to stop Congress from vetoing this act, however.)