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VT’s Legislative Election Results
Likely to Keep Civil Unions safe

 

BY PAUL OLSEN

hile Vennont’s election
results proved to be a
mixed bag for the state’s

gay and lesbian community, civil
union supporters don’t see the out-
come as a threat to the nation’s first
and so-far only civil union law.

Republicans Jim Douglas
and Brian Dubie won the races for
Governor and Lieutenant Governor
respectively. In campaigns focused
primarily on the economy, Douglas
narrowly defeated Democratic Lt.
Governor Doug Racine, while Dubie
outpolled both Democrat state Sen.
Peter Shumlin and Progressive
Anthony Pollina.

Although neither Douglas
nor Dubie received 50 percent of the
vote as required by the Vermont
Constitution, both received the most
votes and their opponents conceded
the races. As a result, members of the
Vermont legislature are expected to
appoint Douglas Governor and Dubie
Lt. Governor by secret ballot in
January. .
None of the candidates for
Governor or Lt. Governor called for
outright repeal of the civil union law
during the 2002 campaign, but they
did differ in their level of support for
the landmark law. Racine, Shumlin
and Pollina were strong supporters,
while Douglas and Dubie were open
to changing it.

In interviews previously
published in Out in the Mountains,
Dubie said he supported a Defense of
Marriage Act defining marriage as a
union between one man and one

woman, and Douglas declined to say

whether he would have signed H.502.

That was a bill introduced by antigay
legislators to repeal civil unions and
replace them with a broader domestic
partnership program for any two
adults who could not legally marry.
The bill was widely regarded as an
attempt to weaken the social compa-
rability of lesbian and gay civil union
with heterosexual marriage.’

Despite their support for
changes to the civil union law,
Douglas and Dubie are unlikely to
succeed in amending it, thanks to
results of legislative races.

Civil union activists were
pleased with the new makeup of the
Vermont legislature. “We’re thrilled
to announce that in the legislative
races, where Vermonters for Civil
Unions (VCU) focused the bulk of
our energies, the news is downright
exciting,” VCU representatives Beth
Robinson, Susan Murray and Jakki
Flanagan wrote in a post-election
message to civil union supporters.

In the end, Vermont’s

House of Representatives is split with V

the GOP holding 74 seats (including
one incumbent who ran and was
elected as a Democrat but changed
his party affiliation to Republicam
soon after election), and Democrats,
Progressives and Independents
together holding the remaining 76.
The result of these numbers is that
the Democrats may take control of
the pivotal Speaker of the House
position in January. According to
Rep. Bill Lippert of Hinesburg, two
of the three Independents are likely
to vote with Democrats, at least on
the choice for Speaker.

In the state Senate,
Democrats will hold an eight-seat
majority.

“On the Senate side, we
held on to all of the pro-civil union
seats that were at risk, and then

‘ picked up three new friends, bringing

the pro-civil union majority in the
Senate to 20-l_0,” Robinson, Murray
and Flanagan said. “On the House
side, the news is equally inspiring.
Although we suffered some disap-
pointing losses, in all, we picked up
many more pro-civil union seats than
we lost. Perhaps the most exciting
pickup is the Grand Isle seat won by

. Vermont Freedom to Marry Task

Force coordinator Mitzi Johnson.”

Openly gay candidates also
did well on Election Day. Incumbent
state Reps. Bill Lippert (D-
Hinesburg) and Robert Dostis (D-
Waterbury) won reelection, while
Democrat Sheila Prue from
Brattleboro made history by being
elected the nation’s second openly
lesbian sheriff (barring enough vote
counting mistakes to overturn the
261-vote margin in a recount request-
ed by defeated incumbent Republican
Sheriff Henry Farnum). Randy Guy
of Chester lost his bid for the House
of Representatives to an incumbent
Republican. ,

In the race for the state’s
lone seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives, incumbent inde-
pendent Rep. Bernie Sanders easily
beat Republican Bill Meub, 65 per-
cent to 32perccnt. Since being elected
to Congress in 1990, Sanders has gar-
nered l00 percentipositive ratings

from the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC), a national gay rights

group. He has also received a mo
percent ratings from the AIDS Action
Council, a group representing more
than l,OO0 community based AIDS
service organizations.

In other statewide races,
Democrat Jeb Spaulding won the
State Treasurer’s office in his first
nonlegislative contest, and three
Democratic incumbents — Attorney
General William Sorrell, State
Auditor Elizabeth Ready, and
Secretary of State Deb Markowitz —
were all re-elected. V

Paul Olsen also writes about
Vermont issues for in newsweekly.
and lives in Colchester.

Burlington Honors 1'ransgender Victims of Violence

 

 
 

 

BY JUDITH E. BECKETT

wen Araujo’s body was found on
Gwednesday, Oct. ii in a shallow grave

near a campground 150 miles northeast
of Newark, California. The seventeen-year-old
transgendered teenager had been bludgeoned,
tied up, and strangled with a rope after the
youtl'r’s biological sex was discovered at a
house party. Born Eddie Araujo, the youth was
reported missing by Sylvia Guerrero, on
October 5 when Araujo had not retumed home
for two days.

Gwen Aruajo is just one of 25 trans-
gendered individuals who have died as a result
of hate-crime violence since October of last
year. November 20th marked the fourth annual
National Transgender Day of Remembrance to
memorialize those who have been killed
because of anti-transgender hatred and preju-
dice. This year Burlington honored transgender
victims for the first time, joining dozens of
cities in 19 states across the US. and in
Canada, Chile and Spain in the 4-year-old
memorial observance. "

Organizers set up a visual display
honoring the dead on the steps of Burlington"s
City Hall. Although not every person represent-
ed had self-identified as transgendered — trans-
sexual, crossdresser, or gender-variant - each
was a victim of violence based on bias against
transgendered people.

The display was followed by a can-

dlelight procession to Union Station where a
speak-out occurred. Members of the trans com-
munity, their allies, families, and friends had
the opportunity to express their sadness and
rage.

Samuel Lurie, who helped with the
planning of Burlington’s Day of Remembrance,
said he has been amazed and heartened at the
strong outpouring of support and interest in this

  

,?.e.mem.l7er our Dead‘

fight Trzutsphofric V-ialence

Crete}? rate Tram Li 1/es?

event in Burlington.

Kate Jerman, another organizer, said
she became interested in bringing the Day of
Remembrance to Vermont after attending two
such events in New York City. When she
brought the idea to Outright-Vermont Executive
Director B.J. Rogers, he was very much behind
It.

“For me the event is about mourning
the dead and making the statement that this has
to stop, that the violence will not be allowed to

continue,” Jerman said. She hoped the event
gave “visibility to the things that trans people
face every day that others aren’t even aware

~ of.” Althbugh Jennan has not yet lost anyone

close to her to anti-trans violence, "she believes
that “one of these days it’s not going to be a
stranger but a friend, a lover or a trans youth
that I work with.”

In California, four young men have
been arrested and charged with Araujo’s murder

 A visual display at
City Hall and can-
dlelight procession
honored hate crime
victims on the 4th
annual National
fiansgender Day of
Remembrance

as of press time: Michael William Magidson,
27, Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, Jose Antonio
Merel, 24, and Jason Cazares, 22,

It was reportedly Paul Merel’s girl-
friend, Nicole Brown, who discovered Araujo’s
sexual identity afier taking the youth into a A
bathroom for that purpose. When Brown
announced that Araujo was a boy, Jose Merel,
Nabors and Magidson allegedly beat Araujo to
the floor then dragged the semi-conscious body
to the garage and strangled the youth.

All four face hate-crime charges and
possible death sentences. Activists from the
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
(NCAVP) warn that there is a possibility that a
“trans-panic” defense may be attempted since
there are some reports. that Araujo may have
had a relationship with one of the suspects.

Police are also investigating individu-
als at the party who could have prevented or
reported the murder but did not.

Araujo’s aunt, Imelda Guerrero, said
Gwen was “a beautiful person inside and out.”
School officials and teachers describe Araujo as
“happy-go-lucky” and intelligent. They
expressed shock and sadness at the news of the
murder.

But Sylvia Guerrero, Araujo’s mother,
said that her child had been so harassed and
taunted at school that Araujo eventually
dropped out. Equally troubling are reports that
potential employers refused to hire Gwen due
to the youth’s gender identity.

Ironically, Gwen’s death occurred
shortly before the Newark Memorial High
School presented the “Laramie Project,” a play
examining the affect that the murder of openly
gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998
had on the town of Laramie, Wyoming.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation (GLAAD) reports that, so
far, media coverage has been mixed. GLAAD
has begun working with the media to cor-
rect basic errors regarding inaccurate ter- >>