Note: This article was originally published in the Spirit of Jefferson on July 27, 2022.
In April of this year, the town of Bolivar became the fourth municipality in Jefferson County to formally adopt an ordinance that adds civil protections for LGBTQ people against discrimination in housing and public commerce. The official designations are to the civil rights of all persons “without regard to sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The addition of these two categories of protected status appears to have been spurred not so much by actual instances of discrimination, as it was to the aspirational goal of Andrew Schneider of Fairness West Virginia in Charleston to have communities in the state self-identify as welcoming and affirming of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders. According to Mayor Helen Dettmer, Schneider’s presentation last November to a Bolivar Town Council meeting pointed to the good fit between his vision and the town’s character, so the subsequent open debate over the proposed ordinance was adopted by a 4 to 1 vote of the town’s six-member council. One member was absent.
Elected leaders of Harpers Ferry, Charles Town and Shepherdstown had earlier in 2016 passed ordinances similar to Bolivar’s. The city of Martinsburg likewise passed its own ordinance the same year. This means that the majority of these ordinances have been in effect for six years.
So it’s an interesting question to ask if they have made any difference in how life has worked out for the lesbian, gay, bsexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) residents of the county, for visitors to the county or for the general population. Has there been overall acceptance of the intent of the ordinances to expose and counter discrimination? Has overt discrimination gone down? Has the world outside of the county reacted in any way? Has the government taken any other steps to address the rights of LGBTQ people?
All good questions. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of clear answers.
Before considering what we do know, it would be helpful to better understand who we’re talking about as the LGBTQ population. The acronym refers to two different parameters: sexual orientation and gender identity. Lesbian, gay and bisexual cover sexual orientations different from the heterorsexual or “straight” orientation. Gay refers preferentially to male and lesbian to female homosexuals. Transgender individuals self-identify as having a gender different from what they were born into. The T in the acronym covers both trans men (those designated as female at birth) and trans women (those designated as male at birth). The opposite of transgender is referred to as cisgender; that is, individuals whose gender identity matches the one they were assigned at birth.
The letter Q in the acronym has two designations: queer and questioning: “questioning” refers to someone who doesn’t see themself as either LGB and/or T, or is uncertain. The term “queer” is more and more becoming a catchall term for anyone who is not a cisgender heterosexual, but this usage is not universal and still carries some derogatory baggage for many older LGBT people.
But how do we address the question of who are our LGBTQ residents? And how do they distribute within each of the LQBTQ acronym’s letters? Unfortunately the clearest indicators we have available come from a national survey conducted by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. That study, which relied on self reports of people contacted by phone, found that in West Virginia 4 percent of the population self-identified as either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Queer wasn’t asked about.
So as a rough and admittedly inaccurate guess, based on the survey, there would be about 2,300 LGBT people in Jefferson County. This figure is about 1,200 less than the number of Hispanics and the number of blacks, but about twice that of Asians.
Of course, LGBT’s cross sect with these other groups, as well as with the white population. Of those 2,300 presumed LGBT people, 250 are members of same sex couples (152 gay, 98 lesbian), indicating that they are likely permanent, committed members of the community. About one-third of them have children. More than these statistical guesses we don’t know.
As to the effect of the non-discrimination ordinance, there is generally nothing one way or another to report. It appears from a top-of-the-head reckoning of the Jefferson County Circuit Court clerk and the Municipal Court clerk of Charles Town that there have been no complaints recorded or actions taken in respect to the ordinances. On the other hand, there has been little to no overt advertising of the ordinances, either on the municipalities’ web sites or in the advertising by the Jefferson County Visitors and Convention Bureau. Nevertheless, according to its director, Annette Gavin Bates, the Bureau does project in its marketing visuals a welcoming message for gay and lesbian couples. Additionally, according to Heather Morgan McIntyre, executive director of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, there have been no issues or complaints reported regarding the ordinances.
Mike Tolbert, a former Charles Town council member who served at the time of the city’s passage of its non-discrimination ordinance in 2016, expressed his view of the critical importance of the ordinance as a guide for the future economic health of the city and of the county as well. He said, “We’re cutting our own throats in discriminating.” He is echoing the sentiment of his father, James Tolbert a former president of the West Virginia NAACP, who at the hearings in Charles Town on the proposed ordinance, stated, “On behalf of the NAACP I want to assert clearly that we stand shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, and hand in hand with our brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community.”
Mike Tolbert also made the point that the contention at the open hearings debating the ordinance came almost exclusively from non-residents of the city, pointing to a different understanding city residents had over how to best advance their local interests.
Chris Craig, a current council member from Harpers Ferry and himself gay, for several years owned and operated with his husband a successful bed and breakfast operation after they moved here from Washington, D.C. about 20 years ago. As someone involved actively in the local tourism industry, Craig cited several instances where his guests brought up discrimination issues when making their tourism choices. He is extremely certain that Harpers Ferry made and is making the right choices on how to welcome guests, although he did worry about the possibility that local non-discrimination ordinances could potentially be overridden by state legislation.
Meredith Wait, joint owner of Dickinson & Wait Craft Gallery in Shepherdstown, who is a lesbian, recounted the influence that early gay and lesbian individuals had in making Shepherdstown a prime destination, and not just for LGBTQ people.
It’s hard to know the effect the LGBTQ Pride flags flying from just about every shop and restaurant in Shepherdstown have on drawing people, but the visitors who fill the town’s sidewalk on any particular weekend would argue that they certainly don’t hurt.
Wait also pointed out that most businesses in Shepherdstown are women owned, some by lesbian couples, others not. This to her indicates that the town’s non-discrimination ordinance has to some extent lifted all boats and helped build a “creative class,” as witnessed by the growing prestige of Shepherd University and a thriving arts community.
West Virginia has always been a mixture of peoples of different racial and ancestral groups and our diversity continues to increase. We are still predominantly a white community, but less so than 10 years ago. By comparing the U.S. Census results for Jefferson County for 2010 and 2020, the data show we have increased our numbers of blacks, Hispanics, Asians, mixed race people, and maybe LGBTQs over the decade. We are becoming more diverse.
Paraphrasing Meredith Wait, we grow and we thrive because we choose to be inclusive and because we welcome diversity and value all of our residents and guests.
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