Mar 30, 2007  |  By: ELIZABETH PERRY  | COMMENTS     

The Virginia Partisans Gay & Lesbian Democratic Club has given its first endorsement of the year to a Haymarket, Va., man running for General Assembly, while gay Republicans in the state continue to withhold support for the GOP incumbent in the race.

Democrat Bruce Roemmelt is hoping to unseat Republican Bob Marshall for the District 13 Senate seat this fall. Marshall, widely loathed among Virginia gays, defeated Roemmelt in the 2005 race for the same seat.

“On both sides of the aisle people sometimes put their party affiliation above everything else,” said David Lampo, a gay Republican and vice president of the Log Cabin Republican Club of Virginia, a gay GOP group. “Republicans need to think about an issue greater than simply electing another Republican.”

Roemmelt, a heterosexual Navy veteran who fought in Vietnam and served as captain of the Prince William County Department of Fire & Rescue for 21 years, might seem an unlikely candidate to carry the mantle for liberal gay causes. He and his wife Beth have lived in Prince William County since 1976 and have an adult daughter. He holds a doctorate in education and is an adjunct assistant professor at George Washington University.

Lampo said that Log Cabin’s bylaws prohibit the group from formally endorsing a non-Republican candidate. He added it is unusual for both parties to support the same candidate, though it isn’t unprecedented in Virginia politics. The group has declined to support Republicans Dick Black and Brad Marrs in previous state races.

“He was the traditional Republican candidate,” Lampo said of Marrs, who lost to independent Katherine Waddell for a House of Delegates seat in 2005. “I think it will happen more and more as Republicans get sick and tired of anti-gay bigots speaking for the entire party.”

Roemmelt entered politics in 2005 when he campaigned against Marshall, who opposes gay rights. Roemmelt said he thinks civil unions should be the right of every individual but marriage should be a religious rite left to churches.

“Bob Marshall sent out a mailing saying my campaign is targeting the abortionists and the homosexual agenda,” Roemmelt said. “I wish it were true because it would show up in the campaign’s bank account. Our supporters are friends, family and labor organizations such as the Teamsters, machinists, fire fighters and cops.”

Charley Conrad, president of the Partisans, said Roemmelt fared well in debates with Marshall that were held in churches where support for the ban on same-sex marriage was strong.

“He knows the difference between right and wrong,” Conrad said. “The more important issues aren’t what people are doing in the privacy of their own homes, but in transportation, early childhood education and health care for children and seniors.”

Lampo said Roemmelt also supports inclusion of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals in hate crimes legislation and supports nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for state employees in Virginia.

“He would probably vote the opposite way of Bob Marshall on just about every bill that comes through the legislature,” Lampo said.

Roemmelt said the greatest problems facing Virginians are transportation, growth, education and a greater need for health care services.

When asked if Roemmelt has a chance against Marshall, Conrad said it is possible given his 45 percent share of the 2005 vote and that voters may be tiring of Marshall’s anti-gay positions. When he first campaigned two years ago, Roemmelt was an unknown with little campaign money, but things could be different this time around.

“The fact is he’s been campaigning for two years, has greater name recognition and visibility in that district,” Conrad said. “When people see him coming they know who he is. Two years ago he was the Jim Webb of the 13th district, no money or organization.”

Marshall has been an outspoken opponent of gay rights. He co-authored the Marshall-Newman amendment, which bars same-sex marriage in the state constitution. He criticized the Supreme Court’s Lawrence vs. Texas decision in an editorial for the Richmond-Times Dispatch, published in 2003.

In the editorial, he wrote that the court’s ruling “was mum on whether schools would have to hire gay cross-dressing elementary schoolteachers. … Will Virginia sex-ed courses teach 14-year-olds about ‘fisting?’”