Homosexuals of Virginia
Please leave your ignorant state and come to DC. Specifically, come join the diverse and (largely) welcoming community of Shaw. It's a great location in DC, has good public transportation options, lots of opportunities to fix up a nice rowhouse and absolutely no rednecks.Think about it.
posted by Truxtonian @ 7.11.06
15 Comments:
People of Virginie, the author of this is Truxtonian.
Rednecks come from all walks of life. There are ignorant rednecks in DC. They just don't look like the ignorant rednecks in VA.
See http://dumpskinner.com/ for an example.
Yea, I authored this. It's me. I'll also add that I've lived a significant portion of my life in VA, outside of NoVA.
I've thought about it.
Truxtonian, as a past resident of Virginia, and currently of Shaw, I can say this with authority and experience. The most vituperative anti-gay/lesbian speech and venom I have ever heard is in ANC meetings in this neighborhood. Granted, Virginia politics leaves much to be desired, but the specter of "in your face" anti-gay hate speech is unknown on the floor of the VA house. I have heard it during open mic sessions in this ward and spoken repeatedly by re-elected commissioners right here. Why-oh-why are "progressives" so tolerant of intolerance when it shrouds itself behind the veil of political correctness? It is one of the seminal questions of our political age.
Bewildering.
Hear! Hear! Come on over to DC! Sure we have our issues but at least my rights are respected. I grew up in VA and spent 43 of my 47 years living in VA ... no more (or not until the amendment is overturned). i'll also think twice before spending money in VA - unless it's an absolute necessity, then DC and MD (or online shopping)will get my $$$.
Stewart, point well taken. I do think, though, that if you look at the preliminary ANC results for this election you can see that the communities are changing and are removing some of the more egregious offenders from ANC office. I'll be the first to admit there's a long ways to go though.
I'll also admit that while I'm not gay, I've had more than a few of the younger and more thuggish residents of the area belt ant-gay hate speech at me to try to pick a fight. So yea. We're not where we need to be.
That said, in the communities that I interact with in the area, I think we tend to be pretty inclusive.
Greetings from DCist site...
Hmm, marriage rights, voting rights. Decisions, decisions. No thanks. I've built plenty of equity in my Alexandria home, my trash gets picked up, the cops are cool, and the kids in the hood don't bother me. I even gave them candy for halloween. I've got good transit options AND a parking spot woohoo. Someday I hope to cash out one day and leave the entire area completely. Forever.
By the way, I've gotten called faggot on the street in DC many times. Why, I don't know. I'm rather dumpy for a gay guy, I hate to shop, and not a very snappy dresser. I'm white though, so I guess that makes me a fag.
Never ever has that happened in Nova. The marriage amendment doesn't really change anything at this stage in my life, but eventually I will make myself far far away from this wretched sweltering pizza-less place.
"Yankee goin' home" Yee-ha!
Yankee: Buh-Bye. BuhBye.
Buuuuhhhhh----Byyyyyeeee.
Buh-bye.
Spent a few hours away from the computer and what happens? I missed Truxtonian certify DC as a redneck-free zone. Who knew? :)
...and shhh!!! i'm whispering because i don't want alexandria from dcist to hear. here's a little something about my life:
I've built plenty of equity in my home, my trash gets picked up, the cops are cool, and the kids in the hood don't bother me. I've got good transit options AND a parking spot woohoo. And I live in DC. Woo-Hoo indeed!
The trash gets picked up here too... and my taxes aren't sent to build roads in Dumfries and Blacksburg. NoVa folks should think about how Richmond represents them... Arlington rejected the amendment 72%(ish). Wanna come back folks? With Arlington on board again, we'd have a chance at better schools AND your tax dollars would actually go to improve traffic HERE. Oh, and we'd get the cool square border again.
There are plenty of ignorant ones here in Shaw. Hardly a week goes by without someone telling me to go back to my own country. I'm guessing they don't mean California. I live in Shaw and I like living in DC. But I've never encountered as much hate as I have here in the neighborhood.
I pay my taxes here. But the city doesn't pick up my trash and the parking enforcement answers to mostly Maryland license plates who visit on Sundays, and Saturdays, Fridays, Thursdays, or any other days these institutions feel like illegally parking on the streets and sidewalks of my neighborhood.
Way to fan the flames. There is already a huge tension in Shaw about gentrification, particularly gay people gentrifying.
mr. surprise,
If your comment was directed at my comment, I take it that it is ok for certain people to express their opinions. But it is not ok for those on the receiving end of those opinions to express concern about what was said.
I'm not gay and I don't really care if people are gay, straight, black, white, Latino or Asian. I just care about having a clean and safe neighborhood where people care about their surroundings and are civil to their neighbors. Obviously I am asking for too much.
Since this stinker is T's post and I have no interest in really monitoring the posts here, I'm shutting down the comments. I think we have discovered that one section of the metro area is not more enlightened or better than another when you take a close look at one's day to day values are and the realities of that place. I like Shaw. It's got its faults but I like it anyway, the neighbors I have, the friends I have made, yadda yadda yadda. Also I recognize the complexity of human beings who can't be boiled down to a single ballot issue. There was a point when I was taking US South as a history class and wondering why didn't my ancestors high tail it out of the South after the Civil War. They had their reasons which encompassed more than those horrible white people who enslaved them. The stories of northenish migration from NC reveal some of the things that pushed relatives to go or to stay, that was more than horrible white people keeping them down.
Complications, the stuff that makes us more than 2 demensional charactures.
And with that comments are closed. Have a most excellent holiday weekend.
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