BY PAUL OLSEN

outhem Vermont voters made

history in November when

they elected Sheila Prue the
new Sheriff of Windham County, but
they may be having second thoughts.

As we’ve reported, Prue, a Democrat,

will become the nation’s second
openly lesbian sheriff when she takes
office early next year.

Prue and her partner of
eight years, Kris Gaudinier, jointly
ran the Upper Crust Bakery in
Brattleboro until Prue won her elec-
tion. That business is one source of
recent controversy over the disclo-
sure that Prue owed significant sums
in taxes to both the town and the
state. She recently paid $3,676 in ‘
back property taxes, interest, fines,
and utilities on her home to the town
of Brattleboro. At press time Prue
owed anadditional $9,000 in delin-
quent property, rooms and meals, and
withholding taxes to the town and to
the state of Vermont. According to a
report in the Barre-Montpelier Times
Argus, Prue and Gaudiniere at press
time were still in arrears on their
property taxes for 2002. The disclo-
sure of the tax arrears was reported in

g the Rutland Herald, the Times Argus,

and other newspapers.

The Rutland Herald also
reported that Prue declared personal
bankruptcy ten years ago and is try-
ing to sell the Upper Crust Bakery.

The budget for the Sheriff ’s

Department comes frornthree major
sources: the Windham County budg-

et, state funds, and private contracts. __

The tax controversy, Prue-
told the Rutland Herald, would not
adversely impact her job. “I’m confi-
dent in my ability to manage the

budget,” she said. “The people of

Windham County will be pleased
with my performance. Any taxes I
owe will be taken care of in the [bak-
ery] sale.”

Prue defeated incumbent
Republican Henry Farnum by 298
votes on November 5. Farnum chal-
lenged the outcome and called for a

recount. The recount gave Prue an
additional 92 votes, increasing her.
margin of victory to 382 votes, while
Farnum also picked up eight votes.
“It wasn’t in the cards, was it?”
Farnum was quoted in The Advocate,
a national gay newsmagazine, after
the recount was completed. In the
revised count, Prue received 7,562
votes to Farnum’s 7,180 votes,
according to County Court Clerk
Lawrence Robinson.

Sheriff-elect Prue’s four-
year term begins February I, 2003
and she will earn $55,000 annually.

According to The Advocate,
Farnum invited Prue to the depart-
ment’s staff meeting in early
December to answer people’s ques-
tions. “I’m sheriff until February I,
2003,” he said. In a statement that
did not bode well for communica-
tions during the transition, Farnum
was quoted as saying, “I don‘t think
she has any questions. It appears to
me she knows it all, and you can
quote me.”

The election of a lesbian
sheriff has attracted national atten-
tion. In a recent interview in The
Advocate, Prue says her sexual orien-
tation will not adversely: impact her
role as the leader of Windham
County’s 55-person Sheriff
Department. “I suspect there may be
some grumbling, but I don’t antici-
pate any major problems that we
won’t be able to deal with together,”
she said. V

Paul Olsen also writes for In
Newsweekly

n the November 2002 election,
Democratic Party candidates benefit-
ed to the tune of over $200,000 from
gay and lesbian donors, according to
Party sources, That amount was less
than the amount received in the hotly
contested “backlash“ election of 2000.
According to Vermont
Democratic Party Executive Director
Mark Michaud, $100,000 was raised
from out-of-state gay and lesbian
donors with an interest in ensuring that
the civil union law would not be sub-
stantively undermined or repealed.
Another $100,000-plus was

funneled to candidates through
Vermonters for Civil Unions and the
Vermont Fund for Families, said VCU
co-founder Beth Robinson. Notall of
that money came from the gay and les-
bian community, but also from straight
allies. Most ofthe VCU and VFF funds
went to Democrats, some to
Progressives, “a little” to Republican
candidates, depending on their records
and commitment to supporting the cur-
rent civil union legislation.

Nationally, other issues than
civil unions were predominant. and
national gay and lesbian political action

Gays and Lesbians Give $200K to Vermont Democrats

committees were more focused on gay
rights ballot initiatives. “The perception
was that the civil unions fight had been
fought and won in 2000,” said Michaud.
The Human Rights
Campaign placed a field organizer in
Vemiont to assist in legislative cam-
paigns in Rutland and Bennington coun-
ties. The Democrats picked up three
seats in Rutland County and one in
Bennington.
The Vermont Democratic

Party “acknowledges and is grateful for
gay and lesbian support in this elec-
tion,” said Michaud. “It was critical to

our gains in legislative races and a testi-
merit to the fact that financial resources
are important. The number of volunteers
from the gay and lesbian community
who worked as volunteers was equally
critical.

“It took thousands of volun-
teer hours to complete literature drops
and other campaign tasks for the leg-
islative candidates,” Michaud added.
“In the past two elections, the people in
the gay and lesbian community or those
from outside the community who are
energized by civil unions made tip a
solid component ofthe volunteer effort,
as important as the money donated.” V

.31 YEARS

cont’d from page i?

Pride Agenda about the Senator’s
amendment to add language protect-
ing “gender identity or expression.”
The Pride Agenda warned that the
effort threatened to derail the bill
completely, at least for 2002.

As several busloads of
activists - those supporting the Pride
Agenda and others insisting that the
measure should still be broadened to
protect transgender individuals —
descended on Albany December 17,
the outcome of the vote was not yet
clear, a reality that Foreman readily
acknowledged. Nor had the tensions
between Senator Duane and the
Pride Agenda cooled.

Duane insisted on raising
his amendment, and in his floor
speech discussed the history of the
gay rights effort, offering both praise
and criticism — which one gender
rights advocate termed “vituperative”
— for the Pride Agenda’s efforts. The
amendment received no formal vote,
but in an informal tally known as a
“canvass of agreement,” garnered the
support of only 19 senators out of
61.

Despite the raw emotions
laid bare by the final few weeks
leading up to the victory, the mood
changed quickly once the final vote
handing gay rights advocates their
long-sought victory was completed.
Duane and his lesbian and gay col-
leagues in the Assembly, Deborah
Glick and Daniel O’Donnell, joined
Foreman, former Pride Agenda exec-
utive director Dick Dadey, and other
leading advocates in hugs and even
some tears.

Later, at a press conference
held in the Minority Leader’s office,
Paterson and Duane were joined by
Foreman. who won the loudest ova-
tion from the crowd of activists on
hand. V

Aizdy Himtm 's reporting contributed
to this story. Paul Schindler is the
editor in c/iiefofGay City News, the
weekly LGBTizewspaper in New
York City.

St. Johnsbury since I996 to serve Orleans,
Essex and Caledonia counties. The needle

St. .I. Needle Exchange Still

t press time. the Vermont Cares St.

Johnsbury needle exchange program

was still in limbo. awaiting final word
from Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Jan
Carney as to under what conditions the program
could continue. Camey had said in October that
she would issue a final ruling on the permit at
the end ofNo\-‘ember.

Carney told the Caledonian Record
that she would wait for recommendations from
the town health committee headed by
Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital CEO
Paul Beiigtson before deciding whether to lift
the restrictions on the needle exchange program
or rescind the permit granted to Vermont
CARES.

The Selectboard. at the reported
prompting of Dzulene Ahrens of the Vermont
Department of Health, came up with a list of
demands and conditions they were to have pre-
sented to Vermont Cares and to Commissioner
Carney. based on the recommendations of the
Community Health Committee.

The Caledoiiian Record reported that

the conditions include: giving decision-making
authority to the community advisory board,
developing a method for evaluation ofthe
effectiveness ofthe program, making the pro-
gram mobile through the use of outreach work-
ers. creating written guidelines for assessing
how many needles to give to a client during a
visit and establishing a connection to Tri-
County Substance Abuse Services to help with
treatment referrals.

“If the program is going to be in the
community. this is how we want it,” Town
Manager Mike Welch told the Caledonian
Record. “lfthey can't meet that, they may not
be who is appropriate to run it."

The controversy arose when members
ofthe St. Johnsbury Selectboard objected to the
opening and operation of the program in their
town. allegedly without their input. Vermont
Cares had held a community forum on the pro-
gram. and said that most of the input had been
positive. In early December. 2002, VT Cares
officials met with the Selectboard’s Community
Health Committee. agency representatives. and

Awaiting OK

members of the public.

According to a document provided to
OITM by Vermont Cares Director Kendall
Farrell, the organization feels it has more than
met the permit’s requirement for public input
since October. Meetings and public events it
has organized or participated in include: an
October 28 St. Johnsbury Selectboard meeting;
distribution of informational handouts at the
polling place in St. Johnsbury on November 5;
an informational presentation at the St.
Johnsbury chapter ofthe Business and
Professional Women’s Organization on Nov. 6;
the regular monthly Needle Exchange
Community Advisory Board on Nov. 6; presen-
tation at the Northern Vermont Regional

Hospital Community Relations Committee Nov.

ll: informational presentations at the Kiwanis
Club on Nov. ll and the South Congregational
Church on Nov. 17: presentation at the Parent-
Teachers Group of the St. Johnsbury School
Board NOV. 20: a public forum on needle
exchange in St. lohnsbury on December 4.
Vermont CARES has had an office in

exchange program began in August of 2002. In
early October, Commissioner Carney restricted
the program temporarily to serving only the
nine IV drug users who were already cnrolled.
Since then, four other potential clients have
been turned away_, although more might have
stayed away because of publicity over the pro-
grams restriction.

The program aims to prevent the
spread of HIV/AIDS through sharing of needles
by intravenous drug users. It offers to exchange
used needles for clean needles and provides
bleach kits, prevention education, and treatment
referrals.

According to a report in the
Caledonian Record. seven of the nine clients in
the program were from Caledonia County. one
from Orleans County and one from New
Hampshire. Before the program. all but one had
shared a needle with another person.

When asked whether the change in
administration in Montpelier might have an
effect on the program’s permit. Farrell said. “I
hope not. Its a state law that the needle
exchange programs should exist.“ V

sfisr