Don't cross the river: recent antigay hysteria in Virginia has the Washington area's gay men and lesbians prepping for a fight.

From the liberal cocoon of Washington, D.C., while sipping cocktails on the terrace of the Kennedy Center, you can gaze across the Potomac River to one of the most conservative states in the nation: the Commonwealth of Virginia.

During the past year Virginia has exposed a raging homophobia that runs across the state. Even Fairfax and Loudoun counties--popular with those who commute every day to the capital--are not immune. GLBT Virginia residents have had to come out fighting against bills introduced in the state legislature as well as local manifestations of antigay bigotry, such as the outcry over a gay-themed high school play.

"Some people have left; some are planning to leave; some are more determined than ever to stay," says Paula Prettyman, president and a founder of Equality Fairfax, a local gay rights group. "My partner and I are in that last category."

The horror show began in April 2004 with the passage of the so-called Affirmation of Marriage Act, which banned not only civil unions but any partnership that would confer on gay couples the legal rights associated with straight marriage.

Dyana Mason, president of Equality Virginia, says a "minority of legislators" were "gunning to make Virginia the most antigay state in the nation." There was a bill against adoptions by gays (requiring an investigation into whether the prospective parent "is known to engage in current voluntary homosexual activity"); a proposal to offer "Traditional Marriage" license plates; a measure seeking to ban gay-straight alliances in public schools; and a proposal to alter the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Says Mason, pointing out that all but the constitutional amendment were defeated: "We have been able to beat back some of the worst attacks."

The people most affected by these attacks, of course, are the many gays and lesbians who work in D.C. but live in Virginia.

David Weintraub moved to Loudoun County so that his partner would have an easier commute. "We were really not aware of some of the extreme right-wing politics locally," Weintraub says ruefully. He is now the founder and director of Equality Loudoun.

"We have a four-year Christian college for home-schooled students called Patrick Henry College. They are very open about the fact that they are training activists to go to Washington," Weintraub says. "They want to govern according to biblical values; that means stripping GLBT people of whatever civil rights we have left."

Still, GLBT Virginians and straight allies are working together.

"It's certainly going to be an uphill battle for us to stop the marriage amendment" in court, says Equality Virginia's Mason. "But we also know from looking around the country, from Massachusetts to Vermont, the longer we have to have this discussion with the general public and elected officials, the better for us."

Wildman is The Advocate's Washington correspondent