WS Gubernatorial Candidate Sounds Off on GLBTQ Issues and the Upcoming Election politieat at BY PAUL OLSEN Editor ’s Note: With Democratic Governor Howard Dean seeking higher office, Vermonters face electing a new Governor on November 5, 2002. In exclusive interviews with Paul Olsen for Out in the Mountains, each of the three major candidates — Con Hogan, Jim Douglas, and Doug Racine ~ discussed a vari- ety of issues of concern to Vermont’s gay, les- bian, bisexual and trans community. In this series of articles, each candidate is profiled briefly and asked for responses to ‘the same issues. All of the interviews were done in July, and although we are publishing them sequen- tially due to space considerations, no candidate had access to the others 'responses before his own interview. The interview with Con Hogan appears below. Jim Douglas Is interview will appear in the September issue, followed by Doug Racine is interview. Cornelius “Con" Hogan in a variety of administrative roles in the Davis, Salmon, Snelling and Dean gubema- torial administrations. He sewed as Vermont’s Human Services Secretary from 1991-1999. In 2001, Hogan chaired Gov. Dean’s bipartisan health commission. He currently works as a consultant and lives in Plainfield. Independent Con Hogan has served Vermont OITM: Why should gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Vermonters support your candidacy for Governor? Hogan: 1 think all people should support my candidacy because I don’t think about Vermonters in segmented terms. I think about all people who live in this extraordinary and beautiful place, and I think about all people being able to get along, and Vermont is one of those places where that’s still possible in the world. I present myself as a candidate for ' everybody. When you run as an independent, you can do that. You don’t become a prisoner of party philosophies, religious philosophies, or anybody’s philosophy. You are free to choose and take your own road. That’s the fundamental premise upon which 1 run. OITM: As Governor would you appoint openly gay. men and lesbians to the Legislature, state commissions, and/or your Cabinet?‘ Hogan: Certainly. I would appoint anyone who has the skills and the belief that Vermont is the place where they are investing their human cap- ital and energy. In the last several years I have worked for a gay man and I count him among one of my closest friends. ‘OITM: What changes, if any, would you sup- port to Vermont’s civil union law? Hogan: We’re seeing nicely the acrimony and divisiveness around that slowly fade. I think there will come a day when people will exam- ine what has been created and say simply that these privileges and opportunities should be available to ‘others who live together for other kinds of reasons. So I could see a moment when all of the things that are attached to the civil union law, which make it much easier for people to support each other and live together, that that would be nicely expanded to others." OITM: So would you have supported H.502, the so-called “repeal and replace” bill that would have repealed civil unions and replaced them with a broader reciprocal partnerships plan? ‘ Hogan: No. I wouldn’t have done that for a couple of reasons. First of all the timing is not right to reopen this. There is still a substantial period of healing that time can take care of. We’re in that process now. I’m seeing that now as I travel the state and the other thing is that the issues begin to change in Vermont. And where that was probably one of the most amaz- ing issues we’ve faced in many years, we’re now seeing issues that impact people’s pocket- book and their economic vitality. My basic instinct was that that bill was not the time to reopen the discussion. There will come a time when the next natural movement will be “OK who else needs this kind of help?” OITM: Had you been Governor what would your position have been on legislation prohibit- ing sexual orientation-based discrimination in housing, employment, credit and public accom- modations? Hogan: I look at that as a law that should apply to every citizen. We all should have access to housing without discrimination and all the things that you just listed in that bill. My per- sonal preference is not to treat it as a gay rights bill but as a people bill. When we think about ourselves as a larger whole, we tend to make decisions that are less acrimonious. -I support it for basic reasons of basic human rights. OITM: State Rep. Nancy Sheltra introduced a bill (H. 259) prohibiting the “promotion” of homosexuality in Vermont’s public schools. As Governor, would you support that bill? Hogan: First of all this is really not the time to be debating that kind of issue. Secondly, we have a history in Vermont of being able to have open school discussions and curricula having to do with our fundamental health and knowledge about ourselves. So I wouldn’t want to do any- . thing that begins to prescribe how processes go on in the learning process. I would be extreme- ly careful‘ about supporting any kind of process that is geared toward promoting the divisions that we have in the state. OITM: Legislation has been introduced in the Senate (S.55) that would permit Justices of the Peace to refuse to perform civil unions. What is your position on that bill? Hogan: That’s a public official and a public official has the responsibility to do their job as prescribed in law. You can’t have laws that say well sometimes you can exercise that responsi- bility and sometimes you can’t. OITM: What is your position on the medical use of marijuana by people living with HIV and AIDS? Hogan: My position is broader than the gay community and broader than AIDS. My basic belief is that if there is anything that a physi- cian can do and prescribe to someone who is very ill and in pain, then it is a physician’s responsibility to order that. So 1 think it is then the responsibility of the law to provide a frame- work for that to occur. So I would support pre- scribed marijuana use for pain relief. OITM: As Governor, would you maintain a relationship with Vermont’s gay community through an official liaison relationship? Hogan: That’s something I haven't thought about. The responsibility of a Governor is to understand all of the constituencies. To me the machinery on how you do it is secondary to the idea that you should have it. I think that machinery could look different from constituen- cy to constituency. I don’t have any preference for that particular machinery or other machin- ery but I do have a strong belief that every community should have some way of having a direct relationship with its Governor. And we’re small enough in Vermont for that to happen. OITM: Do you have any final message to Vermont’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgen- der community? Hogan: Vermont is rich in its independent his- tory and I think that solutions to some of the very difiicult problems that we have are going to be best dealt with when our political process ‘ is not a prisoner to political parties. l’ve learned that deeply over the last months." We have been slipping down a partisan road that is making it very difficult to confront some of the very diffi- cult things we are going to have to be dealing with. What makes Vermont work as well as it does is the range of the kind of folks who live and work here and get along. To me, that’s what being Governor is all about, trying to find com- mon ground rather than differences. V Paul Olsen writes for in neuwsweekly and lives in Colchester. T Unity Project Needs Your Help gig grants from funds raised through the project. Organizations within the LGBTQ communities will also be surveyed. The survey itself and the eventual report will be available online, according to Ted Looby, Administrative Director for Samara. The Vermont Unity Project, a cooperative LGBTQ fundraising project of the Samara Found- ation and The Vemiont Community Foundation, wants your help. Inserted in this copy of Out in the Mountains you will find a sur- vey. The survey is part of the “needs assessment” component of the project, which hopes to use the information to educate big-money grantors and fun- ders to the needs of our LGBTQ com- munities. “lt’s the first time the ques- tions have been asked: what are we doing well, what do we need to do better, what aren’t we doing at all that we should be,” declared Samara Executive Director Bill Lippert. “In the survey, we ask people to rate the importance of various issues and needs. What are the top three needs?” In addition, there’s space for people “to project issues we haven’t identi- fied,” he said. Lippert emphasized that the questionnaire is completely anony- mous. Demographic data requested will be compiled, but no single record will be released, and no answers will be associated with a specific person’s data. Every nonprofit in Vermont will have access to a report based on the aggregated data. The needs assessment will help the Unity Project “prioritize” The copy tucked into OITM this month is postage paid — just fill it out, fold it, seal it and drop it in a mailbox. “In some sense, the needs assessment is also a gift to the com- munity,” said Lippert. “lt’s something that hasn’t been done before.” V