EDITOR IN CHIEF _ ‘ editor@mountainpridemedia.org ‘ ART DIRECTION ASSISTANT EDITOR , EDITORIAL INTERN : classifieds@mountainpridemedia.org I CALENDAR ‘ calendar@mountainpridemedia.org ads@mountainpridemedia.org OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS established in 1986 Jason Whipple A R T DIRECTOR art@mountainpridemedia.org Mack Roark Stephanie Siebert COPY EDITORS Euan Bear & Jason Whipple ' Joel Nichols CLASSIFIEDS Sandy Reeks SOURCE EDITOR source@mountainpridemedia.org CONTRIBUTORS: Euan Bear, Alison Bechdel, Crow Cohen, = Sky DeMuro—Miller, The Rev. Jane Dwinell, Charlie Emond, Robert Kirby, Brad Lussier, Ernie McLeod, Mark Melchior, Rhoda ‘ Moquet,,Joel Nichols, Paul Olsen, Eric Orner, Mack Roark, Pat 4 ‘ Robinson, Jade Wolfe ADVERTISING MANAGER NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Marketing Company, Inc 212-242-6863 Larissa Thompson Sandy Reeks Carolyn Ashby Jim’ Petrie 5 (802)434-5237 ‘ MOUNTAIN PRIDE MEDIA ‘ /5) ’ BOARD OF DIRECTORS Tom Anoe, Euan Bear, Dan Brink, Brian Cote, Pam Kinniburgh, Ernest McLeod, Roland Palmer, Alverta Perkins, Jim’ Petrie, ‘ Carrie Rampp, Esther Rothblum, Richard Slapp’_je'y''A ‘ Out in the Mountains was founded in 1986 with start-up money from the Haymarket People's Fund. Mountain Pride Media's current funding sources. includethe Chicago Resource Center, Green Mountain Fund for Popular Struggle,- Gill Foundation, Haymarket People's Fund, Physicians Computer Company, Samara Foundation of, Vermont, and ' individual private donations. \Ititinl.’iin i."I‘t-jJt>- ttleiilzi STATEMENT OF PURPOSE '- The purpose of Out in the Mounto/'ns is to serve as a voice for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered people, and our supporters in Vermont. We wish the newspaper to be a source of information, insight, and affirmation. We also see OlTM as a vehicle for the celebration of the culture and diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered communities here in Vermont and elsewhere. V * 1 EDITORIAL POLTCY We will considerfor publication any material which broadens our understanding of our lifestyles and of each other. Views and opinions appearing in the paper do not necessarily rep- I resent ‘those of Out in the Mountains. This paper cannot and will not endorse any candidates or actions of public officials on issues of importance to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals,iand* transgendered persons. We reserve the right not to publish V any material deemed to be overtly racist, sexist, anti—Semitic, ageist,'c|assist, xenophobic, or homophobic. Writers’ guide- lines are available on request. All materials submitted must include a name and a contact number. However, within the pages of the newspaper, articles may appear anonymously upon request, and strict confidentially will be observed. Out in the Mountains (ISSN 1081-5562) is published on the last Thursday of each month by Mountain Pride Media, Inc. — it is printed by BD Press. The paper maintains oftices at ‘ 39 Bridge Street in Richmond, Vermont. . The subscription rate is $23 per year t within the United States of America. ©2000, Out. in the Mountains. ‘Out-inthe Mountains I " i y PO Boxi1078. , Richmond VT 05477-1078 .- TEL (802)“434-OlTM ' FAX (802) 434-7046 editor@mountainpridemedia.org wwwmountainpridemedia.org V www.mountainpridemedia.org is updated to include the current issue of 0/TM,-generally by the 10th of each month. O/TM is available in alternative formats upon request. . O/TM is printed on recycled newsprint containi_ng 30% post—con-. sumer and using 100% soy-based inks~ . % july 2001 OlTl‘1 - 5 Samara Foundation of Vermont. Announces Grants and Scholarships Totaling $34,000 BURLINGTON — Samara Foundation of Vermont has‘ awarded grants and scholar- ships totaling $34,000 to fif- teen organizations serving the Vermont gay community and four high school seniors.‘ Four Vermont high school seniors will be receiving $1,000 scholarships for 2001. The Samara Scholarship was established in 2000 as an investment in the future "of Vermont students who oppose discrimination and prejudice and who stand for the elimina- tion of homophobia in our society. Organizations funded in Samara Foundation’s Year 2001 granting cycle benefit the Vermont gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender com- munities in a wide range of areas that include HIV preven- tion, youth services, educa- tion, media development, social service and initiatives. ,to address same-sex domestic violence. ' HIV prevention outreach to men in Bennington County and technological upgrading were the focus of two AIDS service organization grants. AIDS Project of Southern New England and.Vermont CARES each’ were awarded $2,000.- O Expanded youth services for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth throughout Vermont are supported by four grants. The UVM Department of Theatre received $1,125 to underwrite the cost of tickets to be dis- tributed to LGBT youth for the fall production of The Laramie Project, a highly per- sonal and moving account of how a town is affected when a young gay man is the victim of a hate crime. Outright I and Sexual Vermont was awarded $6,250‘ ‘ to be used as a leveraging tool to match gifts in their 2001 major ‘donor campaign. The Lyndon State College Gay / Straight Alliance received $625 for project support for the second annual CHANGE Conference. A $1,500 ‘grant was awarded to The Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights to coordinate discus- sion groups in local communi- ties to ensure that schools con- tinue to teach tolerance and diversity in the schools. A $500 - grant to the Vermont Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association and a $4,000 grant to Mountain Pride Media aim to support fair media coverage and enhance communication for the gay community of Vermont. The Same-Sex Domestic Violence Subcommittee in Chittenden County received $2,000 to implement a support and referral phone service. Created in 1995, the SSDSVS examines and responds to the unique needs of survivors of same-sex domestic and sexual violence. A»$2,00'0 grant was award- ed to The Vermont Chapter of _ the National Organization for Women to help fund a three- day summit to acknowledge the gains made in Vermont with the passage of the civil union law and to strategize about how to extend similar rights throughout New England. The Women’s Small Business Program received $1,500 to award scholarships for low and moderate-income lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people for Start- Up. ‘ “The R.U.1.2? Community Center received $1,500 to sup- port the mounting of an exhi- bition of materials from the collections of the Vermont Queer Archives. The exhibi- tion will be presented in October 2001 to mark National Coming Out Week. This celebration of our communitie's achievements was supported by grants to Pride Vermont and the Green Mountain Freedom Band. Each organization was award- ed $500. - The Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force received $4,000 to assist in their mis- sion of educating Vermonters about the injustice of exclud- ing same-sex couples and the families they form from the status of civil marriage, and the myriad legal protections, supports and obligations that accompany that status. The Samara Foundation, with offices in Burlington, is one of a network of gay and lesbian community founda- tions across the county. Samara Foundation is a chari- table foundation whose mis- sion is to support and strength- en Vermont’s gay lesbian, bisexual and transgender com- munities today and build an endowment for tomorrow. Samara first awarded grants ‘in 1998 and now has awarded over $92,000 throughout the state. For further information about giving or-granting opportunities contact Bill Lippert, Executive Director, Samara Foundation of Vermont, P.O. Box 1263, Burlington, Vermont 05402. Call 802-860-6236 or email at bill@samarafoundation.org. Census continued from page one happen with that informa- tion.” Goslant also said that he felt the government didn’t try to get an accurate count of gay ‘and lesbian households. “I don’t think the government really had an investment in trying to identify us,” he said. “We feltjwe were going to be underrepresented because there really wasn’t going to be a’ mechanism to adequately identify who we were as cou- ples. The census form didn’t ask the relationship between the two" people.” . Like Goslant, Dykes to Watch Out For cartoonist Alison Bechdel questions the accuracy of the census data. “Press _articles have not addressed the possibility that a census could be inaccurate in any way especially when there is a stigma attached to what you might check,” she said. Bechdel and her partner, who checked “unmarried part- ner,” live ‘in Bolton, Vt., a town the census identified as having the highest number of same-sex partner households in Chittenden County, the state’s largest county that includes Burlington. “Bolton ' is a small town and coinciden- tally there is a number of gay people there,” she said. “So it’s easy to skew the statis- tics.” Ten out of Bolton’s 386 households were identified as same-sex. , . While many people believe the census figures regarding the number of same-sex part- ner households in Vermont are low, Beth Robinson, an attor- ney who successfully sued the state in the landmark Baker vs. Vermont gay marriage law- suit, had a slightly different view of data. “The figures were low but the reality is it doesn’t matter whether there are 1,900 or 19,000 same-sex couples in Vermont. What matters is that we are part of this community. We work hard, pay our taxes, contribute to the community, and deserve to be treated equally. That’s true regardless of how many of us there are.”