Dear Virginia,

I am proud to be a Virginian. I’ve not been a full time resident for a while, but I miss it immensely. Many of my family and friends are there, and I have so many fond memories of my childhood, youth and college. It’s a beautiful state, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains, and it has a rich history. Jamestown was the first permanent English Colony in the Americas, Revolutionary and Civil War Battlefields dot the state from border to border, Northern Virginia remains an important center of national government, as the Pentagon is there, as well as number of Federal Agencies, NGOs, lobbyists, and similar organizations. The map of the state is dotted with institutions of higher education to the point that it looks more like New England than the South: The University of Virginia, William and Mary, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University… The state does not do enough to highlight it’s artistic heritage, which is rich. Among those born in or who hail from Virginia are Ella Fitzgerald, Sandra Bullock, Jason Mraz, Ruth Brown, Patsy Cline, Dave Matthews Band, Wanda Sykes, Shirley MacLaine, Perry Ellis… No less than 8 presidents were born in Virginia, including some of the most influential. Where would the US be if not for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Woodrow Wilson?

And yet my state has a dark history, as well. It’s ironic that Stephen Spielberg is filming so much of the movie Lincoln in Virginia when the Richmond, VA was the Capitol of the Confederacy for part of the Civil War! Virginia was solidly on the wrong side in that one. We’ve been on the wrong side a lot! And when it was, it was often in a big way, as a recent post from BuzzFeed by Matt Stopera graphically illustrates with “five maps that show which states had the right idea, and which ones had the very, very wrong one.”

Here, for your consideration, are the first and last.

Slavery laws before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863

Gay marriage rights in 2012

It makes me feel ashamed. On the other hand, Virginia was the first state to elect an African American governor, at least since Reconstruction. It’s hard to believe it took until 1990, but that’s when Governor Douglas Wilder was elected. The City Council of the Capital City of Virginia, Richmond, elected its first Black Mayor in 1977. That wouldn’t happen in Chicago until 1983, 1984 in Philadelphia, Atlantic City and another fairly large city in Virginia, Portsmouth. In 1989 I was in graduate school in New York when David Dinkins was elected the first Black Mayor there.

On the question of Marriage Equality however, Virginia is one of the states that not only has an amendment prohibiting it, but also all types of civil unions. The language is so broad that some argue it may be called in to challenge legitimate contracts between people of the same sex with no romantic or sexual relationship at all. It’s really rather insane. Check out this link to a paper that argues the law is the most restrictive amendment of its kind ever put before voters. The law has passed so there’s nothing left to do but challenge it, but the authors of the brief, commissioned by the conservative think tank, the Cato Institute, argue the language of the law is so broad it can be used to challenge domestic violence laws, wills, contracts, etc. Virginia’s Attorney General is practically rabid when taking on gay rights.

It would be nice if Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, two men who wrote such eloquent defenses of freedom and the rights of the individual, could be on the right side of history this. That may be a tough electoral stance to take for Republicans given the power of the Religious right at the time. But is a neutral or moderate stance not possible, at least?

Must Virginia once again be dragged kicking and screaming into the future?