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CHRIS JOHNSON
Friday, May 16, 2008
As Lawrence Webb exits the Falls Church Community Center, a worker approaches and slaps him playfully on the arm.
“I know I’m not the first person to say this,” the worker tells Webb, “but congratulations.”
Webb shakes the worker’s hand, thanking him for his support.
On May 5, voters in Falls Church, Va., elected Webb to a seat on City Council, making him the first openly gay black person to hold public office in Virginia. Webb will be sworn in July 1.
Webb said he is “very surprised” by the amount of attention he is receiving after winning a City Council seat. His victory has inspired a high level of interest not only from community supporters, but also from media outlets and gay blogs with a national audience.
“It wasn’t something that I necessarily went out to seek,” he said. “My involvement of becoming elected was more so of what I could give to my community of observers more than trying to bring any attention to myself.”
Some popular gay blogs drew attention to Webb’s victory. Towleroad, Queerty and 365Gay.com all highlighted the importance of the win.
Andrew Belonsky, the blogger responsible for Queerty, called Webb’s win “a double-whammy of progressive politics” because he is the “first gay and black candidate to win in his region.”
“It’s important to me that our site send a positive message to underrepresented groups — in this case, black and gay — that they can make it into the public sphere,” he said. “Webb, I hope, provides some inspiration to people across America who feel repressed under current conditions to shoot for the proverbial stars.”
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), an organization that advocates on behalf of black gays throughout the United States, joined in congratulating Webb.
“We here at NBJC are very excited about the election of Lawrence to the Falls Church City Council,” said H. Alexander Robinson, NBJC’s executive director. “We look forward to working with and supporting Councilman Webb.”
Nick Benton, editor-in-chief of the Falls Church News-Press, said Webb’s victory is attracting attention because it is a historic first for Virginia and because it casts the state in a new light.
“Generally people have a perception of Virginia as being a very Republican backwater state because of a lot of religious right dominating the southern part,” he said.
Benton, who is gay, said Webb’s victory is further proof that the state is turning “blue.” Webb’s victory, in addition to recent major Democratic victories in the state, portends that Virginia will flip blue in this year’s presidential election, Benton said.
Webb, assistant dean of admissions at the University of Mary Washington and member of the Falls Church Parks & Recreation Commission, won the City Council seat with 1,217 votes in a race where three seats were open and voters could opt for up to three candidates. Webb came in third place after Nader Baroukh and incumbent Robin Gardner. The councilman-elect beat out the next candidate by 39 votes. Falls Church has a population of about 10,000 and could be considered a suburb to a suburb of Washington.
Webb said the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund “played a significant role” in getting him elected. The organization provided strategies on how to distinguish himself from other candidates in the race and contributed about $4,000 to his campaign, he said.
“Several of them came out on Election Day very early in the morning at 6 a.m. when the polls opened,” he said.
Webb said Victory Fund workers were “doing phone calls into late in the afternoon to get folks out to the polls.”
Citizens for a Better Community, a civic organization in Falls Church, was also “instrumental” in getting Webb elected, he said. The organization works with candidates on how to “go out and get the message” and helps them put together door-to-door strategies to make sure potential voters are coming out to the polls, Webb said.
Webb, 33, has been with his partner Clifton Taylor, a 28-year-old defense contractor, for seven years. The two have lived in Falls Church for four years.
Webb said he never really bought into the idea that Virginia was a bad place to live. The climate for gays in Northern Virginia is much friendlier than it is in other parts of the state, he noted. Webb said his sexual orientation was never an issue when running.
“Probably if I were anywhere in the state it would have been a huge problem,” he said.
Webb, a Virginia native, said adoption rules in the state might prompt him and his partner to move somewhere else temporarily if they wanted to start raising children. But he added that he “bleeds Virginia blood through-and-through” and would want to return to the state as soon as he thought it were possible.
A member of Equality Fairfax, Webb said the most important issue for gays in Virginia should be securing greater job protections through state law.
But the city councilman-elect is more concerned about city councilman-esque problems. Webb said his No. 1 priority is taking a look at zoning rewrites to ensure that the community is satisfied with how lots of housing are broken down. In some substandard lots where there once was one home, owners are breaking up the property to provide room for multiple residences.
“I don’t want to dictate … what you can do with your property but I just want to make sure that it’s done in a proper way,” he said.
He added that residents who live in the area should be “happy with how these new homes are coming into the neighborhoods.”
Webb said comments are still pouring in from the community and a civic task force is still working on the issue, so the matter will probably not be resolved for several months.
Benton, who endorsed Webb in his paper, predicted that Webb will be an effective city council member, noting that he has already shown commitment to the community by taking part in the Falls Church Parks & Recreation Commission.
“He’s done his homework, he’s attended all the city council meetings, he’s been involved in the community,” he said.
Webb also has “the qualifications and the appreciation of the issues” to be an excellent leader for Falls Church, Benton said.
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