It’s early afternoon at Kuba Kuba, and the place is buzzing. Coffee cups clatter, plates hit the counter, and over it all, Melissa Vaughn is already in motion. Before we’ve even ordered our food, she’s out of her chair, greeting someone at the table next to us like a...
A bill that will outlaw the notorious "gay panic" and "trans panic" defenses is headed to Governor Northam's desk for his signature. Virginia lawmakers passed a bill that will ban the use of a person’s perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity as a defense in court for the assault or murder of an LGBTQ person. “It’s done:...
The bill, introduced by state Senators Mamie Locke and Jennifer McClellan, would halt a variety of ways that Virginia's legal system currently discriminates against people with HIV. The General Assembly advanced a bill this week that lawmakers say will modernize Virginia’s current HIV laws. The amended measure has passed both chambers, but...
In order to increase their impact in the Richmond Region and the Commonwealth, Diversity Richmond and VA Pride have joined forces and will officially merge on April 1. On Tuesday, they made it official. February 23 saw the announcement by Diversity Richmond and VA Pride, two of the leading LGBTQ organizations in the state, that they will...
Jennifer Carroll Foy is currently running for Governor in Virginia. If elected, not only will she be Virginia's first female governor, she'll institute a detailed plan to protect the rights and advance the interests of LGBTQ Virginians. More than a decade ago, 57 percent of Virginians approved a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as a...
The bill has been introduced over and over since the 1970s, but this time the Biden Administration has made clear that passing the Equality Act is "a priority" for the President. In almost every Congress since the 1970s, the LGBTQ Equality Act has been introduced in some form or another. On Thursday Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) and Senator...
The bill, introduced by Del. Mark Levine, would have protected citizens against bias-based profiling on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as requiring police to provide aid to the injured and report misconduct by other officers. A Senate committee recently killed a bill intended to minimize police misconduct and...
In this month's Amazon Trail, Lee Lynch recounts her experience getting her first of two COVID vaccines, and recalls her childhood experience of receiving an experimental dose of Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. Now that President Biden and Vice President Harris are in office, I’ve been able to have my first COVID-19 vaccine shot. It was no big...
Richard Shelby is the fourth Republican Senator to announce his retirement since Joe Biden was elected president. His longtime opposition to LGBTQ rights makes his retirement something to be grateful for. The mass exodus of Republicans from the U.S. Senate continues, with Richard Shelby of Alabama announcing Monday his retirement at the...
Roger Severino, the anti-LGBTQ right-wing Christian activist who made things difficult for LGBTQ Americans during his time running HHS's Office Of Civil Rights for Trump, is suing the Biden administration for firing him. Roger Severino, a former Trump appointee at the Dept. of Health and Human Services who targeted LGBTQ Americans in his...
