Ms. GMU and the Real Virginia

In case the McAuliffe/Moran gubernatorial primary doesn't speak loudly enough about recent cultural and political shifts in the Old Dominion, might I offer Ms. George Mason 2009: "Reann Ballslee," alter ego Ryan Allen, 22 year old senior from Goochland.

The Post has more on this great story and how it reflects on the changing Mason community - which, as my friend Emily in their admissions department notes, "has a great Pride Alliance- tons of straight people join and are very active."

Ryan's experiences also remind me a lot of my time at UVA, and the phenomenon where kids who came from small or rural towns across Virginia (like Goochland, or Lebanon, from where one of the students quoted in the story hails, or Emporia, or Roanoke) ended up being the most vocal advocates of queer acceptance, or sexual assault survivor rights, or other progressive issues.

It's an interesting wrinkle to the conversation about where Virginia is heading politically... we so often discuss shifts in terms of geography and population (NoVA vs. RoVA), but there's also a significant element of generational change at play when it comes to the politics of "the real Virginia."