Nov 03, 2006  |  By: ELIZABETH A. PERRY  | COMMENTS     

While Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) spoke at a Harrisonburg rally last week in support of the state’s proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, a lesbian couple stood just 20 feet away and exchanged vows in front of family and friends.

“There is no more important institution in our society — more important than the Congress or the General Assembly — than the family,” Allen said. “It is the ideal to have a father and a mother teaching children.”

Linda Royster and Barbara Kinman agree with Allen on the importance of family.

Royster, 58, a lawyer in private practice, and Kinman, 77, her partner of 20 years, said they decided to exchange vows at the rally as a statement in support of marriage rights for everyone. The couple, who are adoptive parents of two grown children and grandparents of four, said the ceremony accomplished its purpose by attracting attention to their cause.

Royster said the television cameras swung away from rally speakers and over to the couple as they crossed the street to conduct the ceremony. She said Dean Welty of Valley Family Forum, a pro-amendment group, expressed dismay that the women disrupted the rally.

“We never needed to get married because our primary commitment was spoken years ago,” Royster said. “It has nothing to do with the ritual of marriage. It was wonderful to share [the event] with friends and loved ones, but it wasn’t necessary to our commitment. Everyone deserves the same rights.”

The rally came just two days after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that that state’s legislature must extend full marriage rights to gay couples, though it left open the question of whether to call those rights marriage or civil unions.

Royster and Kinman, who wore everyday clothes, had two attendants and a lay officiator.

Royster said she believes marriage should be a religious rite and that gay, lesbian and heterosexual couples should all be joined in civil unions so all couples would be able to have the same rights and protections under the law. She also said she is worried about the effect the Marshall-Newman amendment would have on gay and lesbian families if it is passed. Many of her clients are lesbian and gay couples who look to her to make sure they have the legal paperwork in place so their rights to hospital visitation and financial arrangements are protected.

“I have five or six documents I put together for gay and lesbian couples that want to make these kinds of commitments,” she said. “I’m not sure any of them will be valid anymore if the amendment passes.”

Royster said she and Kinman would love to stay in Virginia, where they have lived for almost two years, but that if one of them were to fall ill they would have to leave.

“We are so happy here,” she said. “Everything else in our life is wonderful. If we as lesbians weren’t under attack by the state, we would be the happiest people alive.”

The rally drew about 150 supporters of the Marshall-Newman amendment to Court Square, where Allen and others spoke on the steps of the courthouse. Other amendment supporters at the rally included The Rev. John F. Sloop of Harrisonburg First Presbyterian Church and Victoria Cobb of Virginia Family Forum. Also in attendance was Luis Padilla, who lost his job at a local plant after placing a sign in support of the amendment in his truck window. He was later rehired.

Christine Robinson, a sociology professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg was among about 100 protesters who showed up to demonstrate against the amendment. JMU students, gay activists and straight allies, who dressed in black and carried signs, joined her.

One protester, Eric LaFreniere of Harrisonburg, carried a sign that took jabs at conservative religious pastor Fred Phelps and Allen. On one side it read, “God Hates Fags! Don’ Let ‘Em Git Hitched,” and on the other, “Welcome to the real world, Macaca,” referring to the infamous slur Allen used in August.

“We dressed in black as a sign of mourning and grief,” Robinson said. “We wanted people to see how callous they are to the real harm and suffering that is a result of the rhetoric and the attempt to embed it in the law.”

Allen was not the only candidate to make a campaign stop in Harrisonburg. Jim Webb, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, and former Gov. Mark Warner (D) visited Court Square Theater the day before Allen, where Webb reiterated his opposition to both gay marriage and ...