PROTECTING VERMONT’ 5 FINANCIAL FUTURE II am proud of my leadership in the Vermont Senate to pass our civil unions law, improve education, expand healthcare coverage, protect our environment and strengthen our economy. As State Treasurer, I will build on my I6 years in the Senate and quarter century of experience in the public and private sectors of Vermont to protect and strengthen our financial future.” ENDORSED BY: Governor Howard Dean Governor Philip Holl Governor Madeleine Kunin Governor Thomas Salmon PRIMARY ELECTION: SEPTEMBER IOTH Paid lot by Spaililhg Ior Treasurer wvIvr.iolIspau|nling.oon The future will take care of itself. But who will be taking care of me? Some 42% of Americans who reach the age of 70 are expected to utiliwe some form ofioug term care during the remainder of their lives, according to a study by the Agency for Heaith Care Policy and Research’. You may need long term care or you may be the caregiver. Help protect yourself and your loved ones with long term care insurance from the cornpaxry that provides a couples discount to domestic partners when both are cligiblc to apply. For answers to your questions about long term care insurance, think 55*“. Contact long Tenn Care Insurance Representative: Kienn McKcmu. wcnim VT Toll Free - 1.377.924.6808 E-mail Long Tumtanluuruco flrbrimyoolttnigstafle. ‘PR Newrwirc, fr/I9/ft! “Prudlxls umk1'w‘ri1tcn by C-mc1'.vl Electric Capital Assuranc:-." Cmnpam}-, and in Newibrk, GE lilo ;‘ C/xciparrgr of New York. Poliry series 709:3 and 5101!}. How We Survived, How We Grew: DwightICathcart’s ‘Cermonies’ Shows Us Ourselves BY KEITH E. GOSLANT on’t hurry. Don’t ever hun'y. Walk. If you don’t look at them, and you walk normally, then it never gets worse than this.” This is the advice Bernie, a flamboyant queen, gives to Timothy, a just- coming-out youth. It is the advice most of us queer boys heard as we were growing up and coming out. But it is Bernie who is chased by the local teenage boys. It is Bernie who is beaten, stripped and thrown over a bridge to drown. If all this sounds famil- iar, it should. Dwight Cathcart, the author, was living in Maine in 1984 and Charles Howard was a friend of his. And, it was Charles Howard who was chased by local teenage boys, beaten and, despite his pleas that he could not swim, was thrown over a bridge in rural Maine and drowned. This is a story of intolerance, homophobia and violence against the LGBTQ communities. It is a story that is still all too common today. Ceremonies is also Dwight Cathcart’s first novel. Ceremonies is written in a first-person narrative, in much the same manner as the Laramie Project, where the reader can feel the effects of this act of violence, not just at one moment in time, but the lasting effects and changes it provokes in each char-. acter. Cathcart creates characters that are full of emotion, fears, anger and flaws, characters that . you know you have met some- where or see in the mirror daily. Ceremonies is set in Cardiff, Maine — a rural factory town, population 30,000, two and a half hours north of Boston — in 1984. The setting, the characters, and the action reflect the social and political climate of the time. Cathcatt depicts a lesbian and gay community that existed as an underground culture with dances sponsored by the local Unitarian Universalist Church, cruising areas near abandoned buildings, and discreet lunches held in back yard gardens. It is a community that tries to survive by not being noticed. Through Cathcart’s char- acters I felt the constraint (and the comfort) created by this v social order — and how it is shat- tered by this act of violence. Ceremonies shows how the mainstream~c_om- munity / society defined us then by the myths and stereotypes it ‘ against the background of Ronald Reagan’s second administration, the increasing rise of AIDS, Walter Mondale’s choice of Geraldine Ferraro as his Vice Presidential running mate and the ease with which the traditional religious community condoned acts of violence against lesbians and gay men: “These people commit sin every time they have sex.” It was the era of the “panic” defense, though it wasn’t called that at the time — it was called “justifiable homicide.” This was also the era of federal courts rul- ing that gay people did not have a constitutional right to privacy. The reader can feel the effects of this act of violence, not just at one moment in time, but the lasting effects and changes it provokes in characters that you know you have met somewhere or see in the mirror daily. had been taught years before and that were never challenged. While the. violence _ briefly unites the underground gay and lesbian community,- eventually divisions surface: between older gay men who want I to keep things quiet as always and younger gay men who want and need to do something; between lesbians, who have grown to distrust alpatriarchal, sexist and homophobic political infiastructure and thegay men » = A who feel confused being some- how in league withlpolice and the prosecuting attorney, and who enjoy this sudden public recogni- tion and political power. As A Deborah, a_-lesbian surviving sex- ual assault says, “It is one thing to create anorganization that is politically effective. It is another thing, and absolutely necessary, , to create an organization that _ does not betray our vision of who we are: inclusive, accepting, not defined by categories, fluid, con- tinuous, obsessed with our liber- tyj! Ceremonies is also set But Cathcatt also takes an honest and painful look at our own community and how we treated those viewed as being “so far out.” Ceremonies is an accu- 71 rate portrait of our growing pains as individuals, as political advo- cates, and as a community. It was not easy to read Ceremonies although it is well written with characters that pro- voke a response from the reader. At times I felt empowered, angry, sadand ashamed. It is because Cathcart has created such true, f11ll characters that I needed to read Ceremonies in carefully spaced segments of time. I remember when Charles Howard was murdered in Maine, the Maine community’s , fight for hate crime reform and how they are still fighting for . equal rights and protection. I also remember when, a few years later, Roger, a gay man, was heat- en beyond recognition in Burlington following a men’s teat dance. I remember the phone continued on page 23 ___-- ,._.\im,