Lake of the Woods Democratic Club

Robert Martin, a member of the 7th Congressional District Committee and an at-large member of the LGBT Democratic Caucus of Virginia, will speak at the club’s May 15 meeting on issues facing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer community.

Mr. Martin, who has lived in Spotsylvania County for 25 years, is a member of the Spotsylvania County Democratic Committee and serves as the Committee secretary. He has served as outreach coordinator of the Fredericksburg Area HIV/AIDS Support Services, and is active in the local ELCA Resurrection Lutheran Church, where he serves on the church council and is the secretary of the Congregation and Council. He is also a past president of Fredericksburg Pride.

Before moving to Virginia, Robert served on a school board on Long Island, N.Y.

Mr. Martin lives with his husband in Spotsylvania, and has two sons and two grandsons.

The LGBT Democrats of Virginia presents issues and acts as an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning/queer persons within the Democratic Party of Virginia. The LGBT Democrats of Virginia also endorses and supports pro-equality Democrats running for public office. Since 1992, LGBT Democrats of Virginia and its predecessor organization, Virginia Partisans, have raised and contributed over $100,000 to pro-equality Democratic candidates.

The meeting, which will be at 1:30 p.m. in the lower level of the LOW Clubhouse, is open to all, regardless of political affiliation.

The links below will be useful to those wanting to learn more about LGBT issues in Virginia.

• LGBT Democrats of Virginia
• LGBT Democrats Facebook site

Gail Marshall, a former Virginia deputy attorney general who has provided pro bono legal services to the poor and disenfranchised throughout her career, told LOW Democratis April 17 that there is “a glimmer of hope” that the Commonwealth’s poor record of granting parole to deserving offenders may improve.

Ms. Marshall said Gov. Terry McAuliffe has appointed new members to four of the five positions on the State Parole Board. “There’s reason to believe that our Democratic leaders are trying to make a difference,”

Ms. Marshall said. In 1995, under the administration of a Republican governor parole was abolished in Virginia. The State Parole Board has continued to function since then because about 7,000 offenders had been convicted before that time, but very few paroles have been awarded. The Parole Board has frequently denies petitions for parole with little or no explanation, Ms. Marshall said.

From her platforms as a teacher at the University of Virginia School of Law, as a big-firm lawyer in Washington, D.C., as deputy attorney general under Mary Sue Terry, as town attorney for the Town of Orange, and as a solo practitioner in the Orange County town of Rapidan.

Through the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, Ms. Marshall volunteered with a project that is challenging Virginia’s parole system as it applies to offenders who have been convicted of violent crimes, and another project that addresses treatment of inmates in Virginia prisons.

As deputy attorney general, her review of death penalty cases led her to question the guilt of Earl Washington Jr. Her flagging of the case for further investigation led to commutation nine days before his scheduled execution, and eventually led to a pardon. Washington is now a free man.

More information is available at the links below:

• The Virginia Parole Board
• The Legal Aid Justice Center