Once Shunned, Student Knows He's No Longer Alone

"I get threats all the time," Satre said. "We're in a very conservative county. These are the reactions we're getting. We're not surprised."

Satre said his group has received hundreds of e-mails from young gay men and lesbians telling stories of discrimination and voicing support for the group. Some of them told of being thrown out of their homes and falling victim to drugs and unsafe sex because they felt alone and unwanted, he said.

"It can be harder for a teenager," he said. "Where is the kid, whose parents have shut him out of the house, going to go?"

His experience being outed at school toughened him, Satre said, forcing him to grow up quickly. In addition to running Equality Fauquier and Culpeper, he participates in school musicals and produces his own gothic rock music. He said he has learned to plan and juggle a lot, mainly by staying up well past midnight every night.

Equality Fauquier and Culpeper has received support from local businesses and individuals. Some stores, such as Ace Books in Culpeper, and Journey Wythyn, which sells holistic and spiritual items in Warrenton, have offered to display the group's stickers and agreed to host meetings.

Jeremiah Dawson's troubled past led him to want to become the youth advocate for Equality Fauquier and Culpeper. Now 22, he spent most of his teen years deep in drug use and denial about his sexuality. He began smoking marijuana and taking drugs at 14. He started skipping school to fit in with the "cool" kids, he said, because inside he knew he was different.

"In my mind I knew I liked guys, but I was so afraid, being in such a close-minded area. I thought, 'What would my family think?' " said Dawson, who lives in Warrenton.

Dawson is trying to start a gay-straight alliance for Fauquier and Culpeper, aiming primarily at high school students. He said he hopes those students would start similar organizations at their schools. Dawson has plans to take out ads in high school newspapers and put up fliers in places that draw teens.

"I don't want kids thinking that you're better off dead than gay. You're a person. You have something worth living for," he said.

Andrea Martens, 41, of Remington, said she became involved with the organization because she wanted Fauquier's gay population to gain visibility. Martens, a member of Equality Virginia, said she is naturally shy but became vocal during last year's heated presidential election, she said.

"I couldn't just sit back quietly and do nothing," Martens said at the group's August meeting at the Culpeper County public library.

Bobbie and Max Hartman of Culpeper said they came to the meeting because they have had many gay friends. When they married several years ago, they were upset that their gay friends could not marry.

"I realized, as we were planning our wedding, that we were going to accomplish in 20 minutes of ceremony and signatures what it took friends of ours hours and hours with a lawyer to do," said Bobbie Hartman, 37.

"There are thousands of benefits that are attached to marriage, and we were able to cash in on that in a fairly easy way. Whereas we have a lot of friends who don't have that same option with their partners. That kind of equality is very important to me."