Permit for Faerie camp

Faerie Camp Destiny is pleased to announce that
\ve have been granted our ACT 250 pennit. We
actually have the papers in our hands and can
begin construction ofour campground in Grafton
and Chester, Vermont!

In spite of the efforts of certain local
politicos to stop our project through the spread of
fear and misinfomiation, the District
Environmental Commission #2 ruled in our lavor
and rejected their arguments.

Thanks for your ongoing interest in our
project and let me know if there's additional infor-
mation we can supply.

Thank you,

Jim Jackson

Contact for Development at
Faerie Camp Destiny. Inc.

Domestic Violence Not About Sex

I am writing in response to the article. “More than
Rough Sex: Safcspace Provides Help For Victims
of Violence Within Queer Families" in October"s
issue of OITM. First ofall. as the Executive
Director ofSafeSpace I want to thank you and
OITM for helping us raise awareness about the
violence committed against and within our queer
communities in Vemiont. We want LGBTQQ sur-
vivors ofviolence to know that we are here to
help, and we rea_lly appreciate your support.

However. there are some issues about
the article I want to address. The Safespace board
and staff had concerns about the title because it
implies that domestic and sexual violence has
something to do with “rough sex.“ In fact, abuse
and violence are not about sex at all; they are
about power and control, one person using their
power to control another person. We are also con-
cerned that the title might perpetuate the harmful
stereotype that portrays LGBTQQ people and rela-
tionships as merely sexual and perversely sexual at
that.

I also need to make an important cor-
rection to the article on the topic of housing for
gay men escaping abusive relationships. The arti-
cle states that “there is now a network of potential
safe houses for such men.” The truth is that there
is no network of potential safe houses for gay men
or other LGBTQQ survivors of violence in
Vermont. What I did say in the interview is that in
other communities, safe homes are used to shelter
gay men who cannot access shelters for abused
women. Safe homes are the homes of trained vol-
unteers who take in survivors for limited amounts
of time to provide emergency shelter until more
permanent housing is found.

The important thing that I want to
emphasize here is that emergency housing for
LGBTQQ survivors is a need in our community.
SafeSpace is working on meeting the needs of the
survivors who contact us. We cannot do it alone.

We would welcome the assistance of anyone in the
community who is interested in helping us address
this housing need. Safespace can be contacted at
802-863-0003 (V/TTY) or toll-free 866-869-7341
Monday through Friday 10am-6pm.

Thank you again, Euan and OITM, for
all you do for our communities!

Kara DcLeonardis
Safespace Executive Director

The title came from a comment either you or Peter
made {and I paraphrased) about how police and
social service agencies have in the past related to
allegations of same-gender domestic violence as
="Ieing just “rough sex. " Thanks for correcting t/1e
information I obviously misheara’ about a network
Q/‘safe homes for those not served by the tradition-
al domestic violence agencies that doesn ‘t exist yet
in Vermont. How about it, folks? lbu can help
shelter someone leaving an abusive relationship
by contacting SafeSpace. - EB

Harboring Abusers

While all the coverage ofthe Catholic Church’s
sexual abuse scandals has been disturbing, none
has affected me quite so greatly as the recent cov-
erage of the case of Donal Ward, formerly the pas-
tor at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in
Vergennes.

I attended St. Peter’s for many years
after my baptism there in 1969, finally leaving the
Church in 1989 after coming to the conclusion that
Catholicism was mired in corruption, misogyny,
homophobia, and many other egregious abuses of
power. Nowl learn that my former parish has har-
bored a sexual abuser for years. Bishop Angell has
declared that Ward will not be punished for his
abuse of power but instead allowed to retire with a
full pension and the support ofthe diocese.

Why? Because, despite acknowledging
that he had been abusing his young victim for
many years, there is “no proof” that Ward “had
sex” with the youth before the age of consent.

This certainly makes a nice end mn
around the Attomey General for Angeli and Ward
but some of us are going to continue to insist that
Donal Ward’s behavior should be punished.
Simply because a youth has reached the age of
consent [16 in Vermont] does NOT in any way
mean that the youth had consented to sex. There
are dozens of ways that older abusers can coerce
young people into sexual behavior. As the
Attorney General noted, there is ample evidence
that Ward groomed this young person for sex for
many years. A man in his sixties, an authority fig-
ure with great power, regardless of whatever ran-
dom age might be labeled “the age of consent,”
should not be using his power to entrap teenagers
in abusive situations.

It is simply unacceptable that St. Peter’s
Parish and the Diocese of Burlington would sup-
port‘ abusive men like Donal Ward. If we continue

to allow abusers and their handlers to spin the lan-
guage and control the debate, we will solve noth-
ing, and the Church will continue its rapid descent
into an increasingly twisted version of Dante’s
lnfemo. .

I support organizations like SafeSpace,
that actually support male (and female) survivors
of sexual abuse, no matter their age. I will also be
officially removing my name from the baptismal
records ofSt. Peter’s Parish in protest of this latest
round of hypocritical, morally bankrupt behavior.

Christopher Kaufman
Burlington

Positive Judgment for Crow

.lust a note to say how much I enjoyed Crow
Cohen’s article on “Judgment vs. Judgmcntalism.“
I inadvertently stumbled upon your website when I
did a Google search on the delinition ofjudgment.
I believe Crow nailed it with her definition. In this
day and age, judging seems to be politically incor-
rect. But yet on some level, we all mustjudge. The
balance that she ollers with her synopsis
“.ludgmcntalism is judgment without compassion“
expresses my sentiments exactly. That explanation
captures the spirit of discernment and critical
analysis, and tempers it with benevolence. It made
me stop and think. I’m not the type to offer my
opinion but I had to say thanks.

Maria Olson
Lake Mary, FL

Crow was unable to write her regular column this
month, but don ‘t worry, she'll be back. - EB

Giving Thanks

I ’m thankful for groups like yours that are there
for parents, friends, family of and those of course
who are gay/bi/Iesbian/transgender/questioning. I
am a member of a local Gay-Straight Alliance and
have been fighting to make sure no rights are
infringed upon and with local groups like Project
10 have assured we are not singled out or ignored
because of what we support. I have many gay
friends and groups like yours make me feel much
better about their safety both mentally and physi-
cally because they aren’t alone.

Leslie Smaltz,
San Pedro, CA

Photo Essay Recommended

Thank you for writing a review of Linda
Hollingdale’s new photo/essay book, Creating
Civil Union: Opening Hearts and Minds. This is
an extraordinary book, for a couple of reasons.
First, Linda’s photos are stunning; they really cap-
ture the essence of the person being photographed.
Second, the essays accompanying the photos,

taken together, tell the full story of the joys and
heartache we all experienced during the civil
union struggle.

To mark the publication of her book.
Linda’s photographs and their accompanying
essays have been on display at the FlynnDog
Gallery, on Flynn Avenue in Burlington. Several
hundred people attended the opening reception,
and the night felt like a celebration. Many ofthe
people who were involved in the ellbrt to pass the
civil union law were gathered together simpiy to
enjoy one anothcr‘s company and to munel at the
scope of our accomplishments here in Vermont in
the area ofg/l civil rights. It was truly a magical
evening, and I \vant to thanks Linda personally for
making it all happen.

This is a book about our history. by a
local author who lived through the process with all
of us. I highly recommend it.

Susan M. Murray,
Ferrisbtirg

Lint/a‘I'loI/lngr/ale will be signing copies other
book at the I’eaccv& Justice (‘enter on ('/lurch
Street in Bit/'/ittglon on Satttnlay Nave/nher 23,
from I to 3 pm. - El)‘

The Case for Pollina

I am writing in response to Chuck Kletecka’s letter

-in the Oct. issue. I cotild not disagree with his

analysis ofthc Lt. Governor’s race more. While he
is absolutely right that Anthony Pollina and Peter
Shumlin both support the LGBTQ community’s
issues, I think Chuck’s take on the legislature is
not right. While the issue is less likely if the
Republicans do not have the majority. if they do
then in fact Anthony Pollina has a better shot of
being elected the Lt. Govcmor than Shumlin. The
history between the House Repubs. and Shumlin is
not warm  they do not like him and will not elect
him  unless he had a huge plurality  which is
clearly not going to happen. lfthc final vote is
approximately 33 percent for each then of course
Dubie wins.

However if you help Anthony Pollina
continue to build momentum (as the May to Sept.
polls showed) he has a clear chance ofnot only
being the top vote getter, but actually having a 5
percent to even I0 percent margin  but only if
you help. In that same Sept. poll, it was a three-
way dead heat with Shumlin and Dubie at 24 per-
cent  doesn’t it make you wonder why they are
not both still at about 30 percent, the base num-
bers for each of their Party support across the
state? Anthony has appeal beyond party label
(only 3 percent statewide ID themselves as
Progressive yet he polled 22 percent), and he is
going up while they are going down. I ask you to
join that momentum and help put a large enough
margin in the race so that Dubie does not end up
in office. Even if

it is not 3 huge > continued on page 3 $

here was a message on my

voice mail the other day. The
guy who called (I'll call him “Eric")
said that he has been disappointed
with how I'm shaping Out. in the
Mountains.

“|t’s too focused on poli-
tics, too lesbian, too mainstream,”
he said. He rarely read it any more,
Eric said. ‘‘I just don’t bother picking
it up.” Then he concluded, “I just
wanted to let you know that in the
rainbow flag that stands for our
community, I feel like my stripe is
not being represented in your
pages.” -

Wow.

I had a lot of responses,
none of them having to do with tak-
ing his comments personally.

I wished he had left his

editor’s notebook

last name and/or his phone number
so I could respond. I wished he had
sent me his comments on email so
I could publish them. I wished I
could encourage him to be a little
more specific about what he’d like
to see in the paper that’s not there
now. ‘ ,

I wished I could thank him
for speaking up.

I don’t ever expect to
make everyone in our community
happy with my decisions on what
events and issues OITM covers
and how it does so. To a some-
times alarming degree, the con-
tents for any given month depend
on who volunteers to write about
something he, she, or hir is inter-
ested in. Some folks like to write
and are receptive to suggestions

about issues or events that might
be important or interesting for our
community to know about. Others
write only when subjected to editor
panic, promises of undying grati-
tude, and/or verbal arm—twisting.
And then there’s the silent masses.
Of course editorial judg-
ment always comes into play, fitting
the pieces together into a more—or—
less coherent whole. Some stories
we go after; others we screen out.
These pages are yours —
not mine (except for page 4 — the
editorial — that’s mine). Every
month I send out an email with the
beginnings of ideas for stories, con-
certs, books, recordings, issues,
people and more to be covered,
looking for more input. When no
response comes, I start emailing,
calling, sometimes buttonholing
particular individuals at meetings or
social events, trying to find out

. what is on their minds and whether

it might work for an article in OITM.

For any given article, if I
didn’t write it, someone else in our
community volunteered — and came
through —— to inform, persuade,
enlighten, or entertain you.
Everything that I didn’t write in the
paper got there as someone else’s
contribution. Ideally, I write only to
fill in when an event or a story is
orphaned by lack of volunteers.

One person cannot put
this paper together. It just doesn’t
happen that way. One editor cannot
cover all the ground there is to
coven

Like building a community
— or creating a Pride Festival —
publishing Out in the Mountains
takes all of us. of_many political

- and personal stripes, to make it

work. We need your contribution of
time, energy, awareness, words,
photos, artwork, stories, opinions,
suggestions - and yeah, money

wouldn't hurt either.
OITM can only be as
good as we, together, make it.
So, “Eric," — and every-
one else in the Igbtq rainbow — if
you should happen pick up this
issue, email me: I'd like to hear
your suggestions on how we can
get your stripe into OITM. You can
reach me by email at
editor@ mountainpridemedia.org.

corrections

V On the front page of last
month's issue, the story on the St.
Johnsbury needle exchange pro-
gram was erroneously credited to
Stacey Horn. It was written by
Euan Bear. I

V And the email address for the
UVM Igbtqa center was missing a
letter. You can reach the center at
www.uvm.edu/~|gbtqa. V