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BY EUAN BEAR
he answer is Yes!
No, not that one, not the
“will you be my civil_
union partner” question. The one
about whether to ﬁle your
Vermont taxes as a couple under
the state’s new tax provision.
There are new tables this
year in the Vermont Tax Form

 

  

booklet, including two for civil
union partners: Schedule Y-I .
(married ﬁling jointly; qualifying
widow[er]; or civil union ﬁling
jointly) and Schedule Y—2 (mar-
ried ﬁling separately; or civil
union ﬁling separately).

Martha Abbott, co-
owner of Independent Tax
Service, Inc., says she thinks the
Vermont Department of Taxes

   

went for simplicity in formulating
the 2001 tax documents. “There’s
just a box for ﬁling status. If you
check civil union ﬁling separate-
ly, then you use the tables for
married ﬁling separately/civil
union ﬁling separately.”

“If you’ve been joined
in a civil union prior to
December 31, 2001, then it
counts for the whole year,”

Racine Continues to  
Cnnect With

3

   

Bv EUAN BEAR S

n his third recent meeting

with members and representa-

tives of the GLBTQ commu-
nity, Lieutenant Governor and
Democratic gubernatorial candi-
date Douglas Racine cautioned
that there were limits to what he,
or any governor could do to make
things better for this constituency.
But, he added, leadership makes

a difference.

He was speaking in late
January to the usual suspects
from Chittenden County gay
organizations at the R.U. 1 .2?
Community Center space on the
waterfront in Burlington, includ-
ing representatives from Safe
Space, R.U.1.2?, Mountain Pride
Media, the Vermont Pride
Committee, and Outright

 

%

 

Vennont. _
Racine reiterated that his
mission was to learn as much as

he could about our community’s

concerns and needs that weren’t
currently being met. He cited
speciﬁcally the Education
Department as being slow to rec-

ognize and meet the needs of gay

youth for safety in schools, and
the Department of Health. “I have
yet to hear anything good about
the Health Department,” he said.
Hirees under his administration,
he continued, would “have to
show a greater sensitivity” to gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender
people’s issues.

He wasin “learning
mode,” he said, so he could raise
issues during the campaign and
help educate the public. He rec-
ognized that the backlash to civil

ommunity

§ as

unions has put a number of corn-
munity issues on the back burner.
Racine urged the attendees to “be
political” in this time of backlash
politics: “This is a different
Republican Party — not the party
of Dick Snelling and Jim
Jeffords. This is the party of
Nancy’ Sheltra and Duncan
Kilmartin. It’s a very scary time.”_

T The candidate also urged.’ the

attendees to “pay attention to
local races,” such as school '
board, town oﬁices, andstate leg-
islative senators and representa-
tives. “The make up of the legis-
lature has the most inﬂuence on
what laws get passed. As gover-

‘nor, I will be able to propose leg-

islation, but if the legislature
won’t pass it ...”.

Both Jane Van Buren,
director of the nonproﬁt associa-

     

iAbbott explained. “Wejthought

we might have to run people’s
federal taxes twice, once as a sin-
gle or head of household, and
once as married, in order to ﬁnd
the appropriate tax. That’s the
long, complicated, time consum-
ing, expensive, pull-your-hair-out
way.” And that’s what’s necessary

> continued on page 5

tion VANPO, and Barbara
Dozetos, National Lesbian and
Gay Journalists Association
Board member and former OITM
editor, spoke of concerns for the
safety of children — both gay, les-
bian or questioning youth and
children of gay and lesbian par-
ents — in schools.

Racine asked what the
policy issues might be. VanBuren
suggested mandatory training for
all school personnel, citing an
incident in which her son was
given detention for protesting
when a substitute teacher called
two boys “faggots.” Kara
Deleonardis, of Safe Space,
pointed out that laws against dis-
crimination might exist but are
not enforced.

Racine repeated his plea
that parents should be active
politically in local school board
races. “The Christian Right has '
been both aggressive and suc-
cessful in electing school board
members. Some of these issues
don’t come under the direct inﬂu-

> continued on page 4