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Volume XV, Number 9

October 2000

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www.mountoinpridemedioorg

Flanagan First Openly Gay Nominee For Senate
HRC breaks tradition to endorse both oandidatesin onetrace  

 

BY BARBARA DOZETOS

For the first time in United
States history, there is an open-
ly gay major party nominee for
United States Senate.

Vermont’s state auditor of
accounts, Ed Flanagan, was the
first, and remains the only,
openly gay statewide elected
official in the country. With his
defeat of state senator Jan
Backus in the Sept. 12 primary,
he moves on to another first.
He faces incumbent James
Jeffords in the November 7
general election.

In yet another first, the
Human Rights Campaign, the
largest national lesbian and gay
political organization in the
country, announced a dual
endorsement in the race. The

bipartisan HRC has a history of
supporting incumbents who
have been supportive of issues
the organization sees as impor-
tant to the lesbian and gay

. community. Its support of both

Jeffords and Flanagan came as
a surprise to many.

Flanagan said he was elated
at the HRC’s break with tradi-
tion. Jeffords said he was hon-
ored by the endorsement.

Jeffords has averaged a 96
percent rating on HRC’s
Congressional ratings for the
101st through 105th
Congresses. Flanagan, it said,
expresses full support of the
HRC legislative agenda,
including issues of hate crimes,
military, family, marriage, les-
bian health, HIV/AIDS, and
the Employment Non

Discrimination Act,.
Key to the landmark dual
endorsement decision, said

HRC, was the viability of .

Flanagan’s candidacy. The
challenger has a tough race
ahead of him, a report from
HRC said, but he has proven
his ability to win the race

through successful re-election

to his current office and
aggressive fundraising.

The endorsements mean that
HRC’s political action commit-

, tee will make $5000 contribu-

tions to each campaign and
will highlight the records of
both candidates to HRC‘s
membership in Vermont. There
are no plans, they say, to send
HRC staff to Vermont to cam-



lators.

Frank Helps Raise Funds for VCU

Nearly 100 people attended a fundraiser for Vermonters for Civil Unions at the Ferri
Alther on August 30. Openly gay Congressman Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts," (left) was the guest of honor.
in his address to the crowd, Frank said, “Each of you knows someone who isn’t planning to vote. if they don’t
vote on November 7, shame on you!” He stressed the importance of the outcome of the election to people not
only in Vermont, but all over the country.
The congressman is pictured here with Beth Robinson, one of the attorneys who represented the plaintiffs in

Baker v Vermont, the case that lead to the state’s precedent-setting civil union law. _

Vermonters for Civil Unions is a political action committee working to support and re-elect pro-civil union legis-

 -83>. \

urh hme of Richard

State auditor of accounts addressed the press and his supporters while

  
   

Photo: Barbara Dozetos

waiting for the returns from primary voting September 12.

Gli Supporters, Opponents
Defeated in Primaries

M O N T P E L I E R —
Opponents of civil unions
showed during the primary
elections to what lengths
they’ll go in defeating law-
makers who voted for the law.

Five Republicans who voted
for the law granting same-sex
couples marriage benefits and
rights were targeted and
defeated. One Democrat who
opposed the law was targeted
by a challenger who supports
civil unions. The challenger
won that race.

Chittenden County was the
surprise of the primary season.
Several groups, with substan-
tial backing from outside
forces, waged a nasty and inac-
curate campaign against Sen.
Peter Brownell and former Lt.
Gov. Barbara Snelling.

The campaign, conducted
through direct mail, advertis-
ing and telephone banks, was
largely successful. Brownell

was defeated and Snelling, one
of the state’s most admired
Republicans, barely survived
the primary.

Much of the misinformation
was distributed by a group
called the Vermont Defense of
Marriage Political Action
Committee. Among the materi-
al it distributed were brochures
suggesting that a “militant
homosexual” agenda had been
launched in Vermont and was
being promoted by a willing.
media.

The brochures suggested
that Brownell and Snelling
were anti-family because
Brownell voted for the law and
Snelling said she would have if
she’d been in the Senate this
yean 0

Also targeted in the cam-
paign were Bill Meub, a
Rutland lawyer who chal-
lenged Ruth Dwycr for the
Republican gubernatorial nom-