The heated debate over whether Virginia is truly Southern

The big picture: The most common metrics classifying Virginia as the South are the symbolic boundary of the Mason-Dixon line, the U.S. Census and the fact that it was one of 11 Confederate states.

• Virginia is also regularly referred to as the last state in the South without a post-Roe abortion ban, the first in the South to legalize weed and the first Southern state to ban child marriage.
• And we personally consider the South to be Richmond and everything below it because NoVa and its fleeced vests are its own state, D.C. is D.C. and Maryland's "sweet" tea is not to be trusted.

Yes, but: Naysayers say Virginia's southernness hinges more on its history as the capital of the Confederacy, Richmond's Confederate monuments and its prominent role as the birthplace of American slavery than its culture.

• A friend who was born and raised in Atlanta said Virginia is only the South to people who don't live in the actual South — though she gives southwest Virginia and Hampton Roads a pass.
• Others point to Virginia's political shift to the left, driven by Northern Virginia, while the rest of the South maintains its conservatism.

What we're saying: Virginia's slave codes were the blueprint for other Southern colonies and helped create a system that defined the South's economy and politics.

• So you can't remove history from its cultural impact, especially with food.

Zoom in: It was also enslaved chefs "who created the meals that made Virginia, and eventually the South, known for its culinary fare and hospitable nature," reports Smithsonian Mag.

• Southern barbecue was also invented in Virginia, with enslaved people as the original pitmasters.

• Black women in Virginia sold fried chicken to passengers through train windows and popularized it in the South and the U.S.
• And you know what the birthplace of mac n' cheese, whiskey and Brunswick stew is? Yep, yep: Virginia.

Plus, other Southern states have progressive city centers, too — aka Charlotte and Atlanta — and even Kentucky has a Democratic governor.

Fun fact: Dozens of readers felt passionately about this question, too, when we asked them a few months ago. One sent us a 330-word email.

• Most agreed that Virginia isn't the Deep South, but its culinary staples (like sweet tea and pimento cheese), traditions, history and geography make it undeniably Southern.
• One called us Mid-Atlantic.

The bottom line: Two things can be true at once — Virginia's identity is changing, making it distinct from other Southern states, and it's still, now and forever, where the South truly began.