Virginia

"Carry me back to old Virginia; there let me live till I wither and decay."

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: 1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 4 of Title 18.2 a section numbered 18.2-37.1 and by adding in Article 4 of Chapter 4 of Title 18.2 a section numbered 18.2-57.5 as follows: §18.2-37.1. Certain matters not to constitute defenses. A. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the discovery of, perception of, or belief about another persons actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, whether or not accurate, is not a defense to any charge of capital murder, murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or voluntary manslaughter and is not provocation negating or excluding malice as an element of murder. B. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a defendant from exercising his constitutionally protected rights, including his right to call for evidence in his favor that is relevant and otherwise admissible in a criminal prosecution. §18.2-57.5. Certain matters not to constitute defenses. A. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the discovery of, perception of, or belief about another persons actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, whether or not accurate, is not a defense to any charge brought under this article. B. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a defendant from exercising his constitutionally protected rights, including his right to call for evidence in his favor that is relevant and otherwise admissible in a criminal prosecution."

"Virginia puts on her prettiest colors to greet the seasons. In the fall, the colors of the leaves are lemon yellow, pumpkin gold, watermelon red, rusty oak, vermillion maple, burnt orange, and dusty green, and no two trees are the same."

"Incontestably what runs Virginia is the Byrd machine, the most urbane and genteel dictatorship in America. A real machine it is, though Senator Harry Flood Byrd himself faced more opposition in 1946 than at any time in his long, suave, and distinguished public career. Virginia is, of course, "the mother of states"; it is one of four in the union to call itself a commonwealth, and it has produced eight presidents, more than any other state. Its history goes back to Jamestown, the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in America, in 1607; the colony was named for Elizabeth, the virgin queen, and its citizens established an effective representative government several years before the Puritans in New England. Ever since it has prided itself on aristocratic tradition, a seasoned attitude toward public life, administrative decency, and firm attachment to the regime of law. Virginia breeds no Huey Longs or Talmadges; its respect for the forms of order is deeply engrained. One subsidiary point is that Virginians, it seems, were not so philoprogenitive as their New England counterparts. Boston, as we know, choked with Cabots, Adamses, and Lowells. But there are no Washingtons in Richmond; George Washington, as a matter of fact, left no children. Jefferson had direct descendants, but none with the name Jefferson play any consequential role in Virginia life today. There are no Madisons, Monroes, descendants of John Marshall or Patrick Henry, or even Lees, in the contemporary political arena."

"Geologically, Virginia has some unusual formations- the Natural Bridge, Natural Tunnel, and Natural Chimneys- where ancient seas once washed and shaped the limestone. In Fairystone State Park in Henry County, crystals in petrified wood have produced small crosses that are used as jewelry. Virginia has iron ore at Ferrum, bauxite at various locations, and huge deposits of coal in its western mountains. Until the California gold strike in 1849, Virginias Goochland and Buckingham Counties were Americas leading producers of gold. Both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were fought extensively in Virginia, and the surrenders that ended both these wars took place here. Although Virginia is considered a conservative state and was the capital of the Confederacy, Virginia voters in 1989 elected the first African-American governor, L. Douglas Wilder. The history of Old Dominion is colorful and dramatic."

"Yorktown, Virginia is a small, quiet town today. The only indications of its past importance are the Victory Monument, the visitors center, and the cannons by the river pointing at the earthworks where an empire was lost and won."

"On the whole, I find nothing anywhere else... which Virginia need envy."

"I think it would be better for Virginia if she could get rid of them... I think it would be for the benefit of Virginia."

"I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the south. So fully am I satisfied of this, as regards Virginia especially, that I would cheerfully have lost all I have lost by the war, and have suffered all I have suffered, to have this object attained."

"In 2021, Virginia became the first and only Southern state to pass a law amending the Code of Virginia to curtail the use and effectiveness of the LGBTQ+ "panic" defense. The law defines circumstances that do not mitigate a homicide. Specifically, it states that "notwithstanding any other provision of law, the discovery of, perception of, or belief about another persons actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, whether or not accurate, is not a defense to any charge of capital murder, murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or voluntary manslaughter and is not provocation negating malice as an element of murder."

"He captured Harpers Ferry, with his nineteen men so few, and frightened Old Virginny till she trembled through and through. They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew. But, his soul is marching on."

"H to the izz-o, v to the izz-a. For shizzle my nizzle, used to dribble down in VA."