The Washington Post - 07.09.2019

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ SU B

RELIGION

A conversion therapy

center founder who says

he’s gay is calling for the

closure of such places. B2

THE DISTRICT

A woman who claimed

self-defense when she

killed her husband got

7 ½ years in prison. B4

THE DISTRICT

Officials lobby against an

effort to expand a law that

allows for the early release

66 ° 78 ° 84 ° 77 ° of some inmates. B5

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 4 p.m.

84

°

Precip: 0%

Wind: NW

7-14 mph

BY RACHEL WEINER

When they applied for a mar-

riage license in Rockbridge

County, Va., Brandyn Churchill

and Sophie Rogers were told they

could not have one unless they

each chose a race, from a list that

included “A ryan” and “Oc-

toroon.”

The Supreme Court struck

down Virginia’s ban on interra-

cial marriage over half a century

ago. Ye t the mechanism by w hich

that prohibition was enforced

remains on the books: a require-

ment that all would-be newly-

weds identify by race. To fill out

the form falsely is a felony.

So, weeks away from their

planned Oct. 19 wedding at a

barn in Fincastle, Va., the couple

is challenging the law in Virginia

federal court. Joined by two oth-

er engaged couples, they argue

the law is a racist holdover that

has no place in modern mar-

riage.

The suit is part of both efforts

to scrape away vestiges of segre-

gation in Virginia and to move

away from institutional categori-

zation in both race and gender.

The plaintiffs say people should

be free in their personal lives to

identify by race but shouldn’t be

forced to, under the First, 13th

and 14th amendments. But the

lawsuit raises a more challenging

question: Can the government

address discrimination without

labels created from it?

“I am not proposing we stop

talking about race altogether,”

Rogers, 22, said. “Not only does

this type of law not promote or

further this important conversa-

tion, it doesn’t seek to.”

In a letter, their attorney, Vic-

tor Glasberg, asked Democratic

Gov. Ralph Northam to “get on

the right side of history” and

decline to defend “tainted cate-

gories reflecting Virginia’s his-

torical repression of non-white

persons.”

Spokespeople for the governor

and attorney general did not

have an immediate comment.

Rogers heard about the plans

to challenge the law from a

professor at Washington & Lee

University, where she’s in her

second year of law school and

where Churchill, 27, got his un-

dergraduate degree. The school

has been confronting its own

SEE MARRIAGE ON B6

BY LORI ARATANI

Metro’s inspector general said

problems with track work and

concrete structures on the trou-

bled Silver Line rail project could

create significant cost and opera-

tional issues and is urging the

transit agency not to accept con-

trol of the line until the issues are

resolved.

In management alerts issued

Friday, Metro Inspector General

Geoffrey A. Cherrington said a

sealant being applied to prevent

water from seeping into hun-

dreds of defective concrete pan-

els may not be working. A sam-

pling of sealant already in place

found it was not working in all

cases, leaving some panels vul-

nerable to cracking. Unless the

panels are replaced or the con-

tractor comes up with another

solution, Metro should not accept

the work, he advised.

Cherrington’s t eam also identi-

fied problems at t he rail yard that

is being built concurrently with

the rail line. He said Metro’s

consultants found too many

small pieces of rock in the ballast

for track beds that could cause

drainage issues and lead to the

rocks shifting. That movement,

unless fixed, could cause the

track to shift as trains travel on it.

Both issues if not properly

addressed, “will create extraordi-

nary cost, maintenance and oper-

ational issues early once WMATA

take ownership and control of

this project,” Cherrington wrote.

Metro will o perate the rail line,

but its construction is being over-

SEE SILVER LINE ON B4

BY JULIE ZAUZMER

Half a century ago, Thomas

Ta rrants — a child of Mobile, Ala.

— felt like the country was chang-

ing for the worse. The civil rights

movement i nfuriated h im. His ha-

tred of African Americans and

Jews led him straight into the

arms of the Ku K lux Klan. Hate led

him to participate in a group that

bombed Mississippi synagogues.

Hate led him to prison.

Now, he recognizes the same

anger in a growing number of

young men in 2019. And Ta rrants,

who renounced his white-su-

premacist past decades ago, feels

compelled to warn others away

from the path he traveled.

The solution he proposes:

Christianity.

“I’ve shared over the years,

from time to time, how God

changed my life. I’ve seen the

tremendous encouragement it

brings to people. It h elps them see

that God is real and active in the

world,” he said. “A nd if you’re a

believer, you’re going to have

friends across racial groups.”

Ta rrants’s grim conviction —

that the Trump era bears many of

the hallmarks of the time that

prompted him to join the KKK —

has led him to tell his story and

urge his religion as an antidote, in

a book he published last month.

“People can be seduced by these

things when the climate is right,”

he said, comparing the current

era not just to the 1960s but to

Nazi Germany. “There is no rea-

son that cannot happen again. It’s

a very shocking thought.... I

don’t want to prophesy. I think

we’re seeing things today that

should be causing people to ask

questions.”

Ta rrants’s own story is a turbu-

lent one. His relationship with his

father was troubled, and he found

role models instead as a teen in

his white-supremacist neighbors.

Carrying a bomb to a Jewish civil

rights leader’s house in 1968, he

was stopped by FBI agents inves-

tigating his KKK group, which

had been terrorizing Mississippi’s

Jews. The FBI chased Ta rrants

and his companion, then engaged

them in a bloody shootout: The

woman with Ta rrants was killed,

and he was shot four times at c lose

range. He survived.

In p rison, at f irst he read “Mein

Kampf” and other books that fu-

eled and furthered his worldview.

Then he started reading Plato and

SEE TARRANTS ON B2

BY RACHEL CHASON

Mayor G. Frederick Robinson

has led Bowie for the past two

decades, as the Maryland city has

rapidly grown and diversified.

Now, a wealthy business owner, a

well-connected Annapolis lobby-

ist and a veteran of the city

council are the leading candi-

dates vying to replace Robinson

as the next mayor of Prince

George’s largest city.

Ahead of the Nov. 5 election,

discussion has centered on the

future of development in this

municipality, where steady

growth has come with a backlash,

and where familiar divisions be-

tween progressives and establish-

ment Democrats are emerging.

Business owner Timothy Ad-

ams is shoring up support among

young progressives, while long-

time lobbyist Leonard Lucchi has

Robinson’s endorsement and the

backing of a host of politicians,

and Dennis Brady, who served for

22 years on the council, is count-

ing on core supporters who have

backed him over the course of 11

campaigns.

“This is a crucial time for the

city,” s aid Adams, who has lived in

Bowie for 25 years. “People feel

like the city is ruled more by

politics than by common sense

... a lot of people think lobbyists
and developers are taking over all
the influence.”
Adams, a disabilities advocate
who started Systems Application
& Te chnologies in 1989, would be
the first black mayor of Bowie,

which in the 1960s was a predom-

inantly white bedroom commu-

nity and is now a city of nearly

60,000 that is 53 percent black

and 36 percent white.

He said the most recent exam-

ple of overdevelopment — and

residents’ resistance to it — is the

fight against a developer’s plan to

turn Freeway Airport into more

than 500 townhouses. The county

council paved the way for the

project with a text amendment

that changed how the land was

zoned, a decision that Adams said

he opposed.

Adams’s critics say he is simply

looking for another race to run

following an unsuccessful bid for

state Senate last year in which he

loaned himself $475,000. He said

he is focused on building a grass-

roots effort, buoyed by young

liberal politicians including the

vocal minority block of the coun-

SEE BOWIE ON B4

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST

Celestial construction

Metro

project

faces new

problems

SILVER LINE MAY BE

FURTHER DELAYED

Watchdog finds fault

with sealant, rail yard

Couples sue over marriage license race question

Race for Bowie mayor taking shape Ex-Klansman warns against hate

Suit says requirement

is a vestige of Virginia’s

segregationist past

Four candidates vying

to replace Robinson, with

development a key issue

Man who renounced

his hostile past says

Christianity is answer

CHRISTOPHE GENTY/CHRISTOPHE GENTY PHOTOGRAPHY

Brandyn Churchill and Sophie Rogers are challenging the state law

that requires couples seeking marriage licenses to state their race.

ABOVE: A construction crew

renovates the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter­day Saints’ temple in

Kensington, Md. RIGHT: Topped

with a statue of the angel Moroni, a

signature of Mormon temples, the

building closed in March 2018 and is

scheduled to reopen in 2020.