6 - OITM may 2001 )3 ffiuw awe ‘weeféénd 2001 am: firddag, ]une15, 7:30 pm. Calflege Sweet Cangfwgatianal Clitvwfi .‘l3wz&'ngtan, ‘Ue/mwznt .7l‘llJ2?. at Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the Peace & Justice - Store. or the RU12? Community I Center in Burlington. For information on how to order _ —- tickets by mail, either email ‘ I samadhi@adelphia.net or call Peter Frechette ‘at 864-5327. -.,.. j'.\ Z x/M See us at the Essex Spring Craft 8: Fine Art Show - May 4,5 & 6 e I Vermont’s.premier I . : 5‘. showicaseforjmei '.“‘very.b,esi;.in '_'i‘:er:11'pOrWt1iryii‘ . ' ' i.ti.Irrz.ae,sia- , Response to David Garrecht [Rutland Herald, “Letters” April 2, 2001] Contradicting‘ a Herald Editorial of March 12 that argued: “...there is the myth that homosexuality can be ‘cured,’ there is absolutelyvno reliable scientific evidence to that effect...,” David Garrecht replied, “...there is consider- able evidence that very many people have successfully left the homosexual lifestyle. ...In Vermont, the place to start is by visiting the website. ...Verrnont deserves uncensored dialogue on this issue.” I My response is that on the Internet you can probably find any conceivable view of the cause for adopting or not adopting a homosexual lifestyle. The question is: Is the view scientifically “reliable” or is it based not on science but on wishful thinking? As a married homosexual well along in years (I’ll be ninety in two month), I_have the belief that both practicing homosexuals and orthodox born—again Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus oversimplify an issue that requires a guarded hypoth- esis rather than doctrinaire absolutism. Homosexuals point to DNA as proof that they have no con- trol over their lifestyle, ignor- 1 ing ‘that? a‘ ‘child seduced‘ at an early age may find the experi- ence so overpowering that by conditioned reflex rather than DNA, he can never free him- self from his homosexuality, even though, by later condi- ’ tioned reflex he may learn to love women and become a hus- band and father. DNA is programmed in the genes; conditioned reflex is equally irresistible but by chance. If I had been seduced by a girl cousin at age six, I could have been programmed (i.e., “conditioned”) heterosex- ual. If at first my homo/hetero double harness may seem self- destructive, it is no more divi- _ W/MP)( sive than the stresses and strains between hetero husband and wife that lead to high divorce rate. All over the world — in England, Turkey, India, Siam, Japan, wherever I have trav- eled, I have encountered men who have eagerly embraced the opportunity to have sex with a homosexual, but after- ward resorted to the rationali- zation that they themselves are heterosexual. I believe that my seduction at six was not ordained by my“ genes but was an accident of circumstance. I can never for- get the incident. Wakened at midnight in the double bed at my grandfather’s, when after the event, the teen-age boy, sat- isfied, placed his hand over my lips: “Don’t you tell Gram.” I replied, “When can we do it again?” I was a good boy, conscien- tious, cautious, but I consid- ered myself an absolute homo- sexual until by nearly involun- tary experiences I learned that women were attracted to me, and I could learn to love women. If I had kept my mouth shut, shielded by wife and chil- dren, I could have passed as what the community called “normal.” But I was a writer who found my life too absorb- ing not todescribe it in poetry and fiction, and that meant, unless I became a closet writer, I must go public. Like thousands of gays and lesbians, I have taken consider- able punishment. I am an author of poetry, fiction,‘ and literary criticism, and have sometimes discovered that a gay magazine will reject a story because I am straight and a straight magazine will reject the same story because I am gay. Thirty ago Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series printed my brief sexual/literary autobi- ography. When they asked for years North Professionals Each Oftice Independently Owned and Operated SELLING BUYING REAL ESTATE? Call JACKIE Jackie Marina REALTOR 802-655-3377 x23 802-639-4520 x23 e—moil [ockie@together.net “Out and Serving our Community since 1989” more information, I wrote that I was bisexual, coining a musi- cal metaphor that I had been accused of playing the piano like an organist, and playing the organ like a pianist. In their next issue, they published my script, but later left me out of their next issue. Twenty years later under a new format, they invited me to write a forty- page literary autobiography, and I submitted a homo/hetero “Welcome 0 Life!” which appeared in 1996 with biogra- phies of 19 other authors in Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series No. 24. I have become an apologist and crusader for an ambiguous lifestyle but also I am a profes- sional lyric writer who takes his craft seriously. I am also a secular humanist believing that worldwide civil wars growing out of rivalry between contest- ing religious faiths and nations competing for money and power will conceivably bring an end to human domination over this infinitesimal planet out at the edge of the cosmos. For the past ten years in the initiative of Marquis Who’s Who I have been included in ...In America and World. On their initiative also I was invited to submit “Thoughts on Life” which for several years appeared as‘ a postscript in both volumes and still appears in Who’s Who in America: “Our social, reli- gious, and political institutions are medieval, and obsoletely inconsistent with our knowl- edge of the physical and bio- logical universe. Unless we rid ourselves of nationalism, mili- tarism and economic imperial- ism and the notion of an anthropomorphic universe, we are doomed to self—destruc- tion.” Lyle Glazier Bennington, VT ...In the’ cscrib 6/ea‘/-\ We offer a tine selection of wedding and civil Lmion invitations and social announcements. Our lenowledgezrhle and friendly staff is ready to assist you with ever aspect of your wec cling ensemhle. Scrilololes talee you from engagement announcements to tl'ranle you notes with no detail unal:|:ende(l. 96 C/JUrC/J <5/reef (Bur/1'/igfon, (Damion! (602) am-9004 - <7ax (502) 666-9006 e-mar’/ scrbb/sw'@ao[ com