Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights advocacy group, said the experience of Washington's outer suburbs underscores changes in attitudes. "We're talking about our community's willingness and comfort level living anywhere," Solmonese said. "And not just our own community, but society's view has changed so much in the last few years."
Such close-in suburbs as Montgomery, Arlington and Alexandria have had informal gay social groups for years, and a Northern Virginia group called Dulles Triangles was among the first established in the outer suburbs, in 1992. In the past few years, social organizations have sprung up, with memberships ranging from the dozens to the hundreds, including Equality Montgomery, Equality Fairfax, Equality Loudoun, Equality Prince William, Equality Fauquier and Culpeper and Community Triangle, based in Hagerstown, Md.
Movie nights, bowling, picnics, pool parties, holiday events and kid-friendly ice cream socials are among the numerous events for gays that suburban organizers have sponsored. "They're strikingly similar to other mainstream types of groups, aren't they? . . . It's amazing the void it filled," said Kelly Schlageter, co-president of Equality Fairfax, which she said has an e-mail list of more than 1,000 members and has started getting businesses -- including a bank, a car dealer, lawyers and insurance agents -- to sponsor events.
"We know that our goals and needs and lifestyles are very similar" to straight people's, Schlageter said. "Most people move into the suburbs for the same reasons. We have families. We want similar things."
