editorial

What a Long,
Strange, Difficult,
Rewarding Trip
It’s Been

ith this issue, Out in the
Mountains begins its
17th year of publication ,

and I complete my first year as edi-

‘ tor. It’s been a long journey for the

paper, placing us among a rare few
GLBTQ publications who have man-
aged to survive discrimination,
increasing printing and production
costs, the ebbing (and thankfully, the
rising) of community involvement to
continue to document, celebrate, vali-
date, comfort, and express the lives
of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals,
transfolk, and queers.

That we continue to do it in
a small rural state Without the clus-
ters of gay-centered bars, gyms, com-
mercial party sites whose full-page

top, I-{ugh Coyle passes the torch to Deb '
Lashman in 1991; above, Jason Whipple yields
to Euan Bear, April 2002.

ads support (and pad) the pages of
larger papers is nothing short of
amazing!

I looked back through our
archive this month, and talked to,
emailed and phoned as many former
editors as I could reach for a little
perspective on our communities’ his-
tory in print as they experienced it.

Howdy Russell, of
Hinesburg, was involved from the
first moment. “I remember us sitting
down — Vermonters for Lesbian and
Gay Rights, that is — to write a grant
to the Haymarket Foundation in
David Ryan’s apartment in
Burlington and trying to figure out
what we were going to write the
grant for. The idea of a vehicle for
communication seemed like the best
idea.”

In the earliest days, there
was no designated editor. “There was
a group of us getting articles togeth-
er,” Howdy recalls. In the first 5
years, listing the names of the «people
involved in the paper was an issue:
the group did not want to give credit
only to the ones who were “out” or in
“safe” jobs, while others doing equal-
ly important work for the paper could
not have their names listed for fear of
losing a job, a housing situation, or
even custody of a child.

What was most difficult
was the chaos and uncertainty:
“People would make commitments
for articles and then it wouldn’t show
up. It was the most challenging thing
— well, along with finances.” '

- When
the—paper was
in danger of
folding in late
1989, Hugh
Coyle was
among a col-

. lection of com-
munity mem-
bers who
responded to a
call for help,
and he became
the first desig-
nated editor in
June of 1990.
This stint. last-
ed a year, as a

I job took him
out of state,‘

“My
fondest OITM

my first,” he
writes, “the '
nightiwhen
dozens of
interested folks
gathered at the
Burlington
public library
to save the
newspaper
from disap--i
pearing. Iwas
there with
some friends from Middlebury, ‘
where we had just launched a small
group for gay, lesbian, and bisexual
people. OITM became something of a
central focus for us. It gave our
group a sense of purpose and pre-
pared us well for the political road
ahead.”

Hugh had a second stint as
editor from April of 1996 to May of
1997:

“From the first ‘editorial
meeting’ (when the departing editors
threw the keys to the OITM office
into the room and shouted ‘Good
luck!’) to the debut of our spiffy new
OITM T-shirts on a soaking-wet
Pride Day, from the numerous (and
joyous) anniversary and holiday par-
ties with the staff to a nearly fatal
accident on a wintry day while driv-

- June 1993'. Lashinan coi1clu'de's."‘Ii T

, or same-sex mariiage? Nopetfltiwasxi‘ ~
,"|v

memory is also _'

' onslaught from readers — both rnale__» 

cover the incredible places _

ing pages off to the printers, my tiit_1e',,e;.},
with OITM produced some of the , 
most memorable moments of ‘my life.‘.,_H».,:
It taught me the true meaning of,
pride and community service, and g I
how wonderfully .the two work, . 4.’:
together.” 1 '
Deb Lashman, now an, , g- ;
attorney with Schoenberg & , ‘ .i ,1
Associates in Burlington, was the i ‘A F
editor for three of the years (l99l-‘
1994) between -Hugh Co'yl'e’s two 9' v ‘Er!
terms before heading.off to law ' .' ;:,
school. ' r - , - ' - U‘
The «most difficultissue she/ti
remembers was “dealing -with the A .3
issue of NAMBLA [the North
American Man-Boy Love - -~ -‘-‘E
Association] wanting to place an ad ' 
in the classifieds. There were heated
differen;:e_s that were certainly, _  (,,fl,§
brought foitlie forefront: were we a‘ ' '"
newspaper or s'omething')el)se?' Ivcame"
downion the side of our being a‘ ' i U
newspaper.” The who’le"issue Ipl'OfI'lOf-1"
ed ‘discussion and loud pas'sions,’Deb»'"'
says, and the ad wentiri'afterward. ' 9'9"‘
' One of the most iawl<'ward‘r‘“".i
issues came up when “I was in the ' '
position 'of having to report on my: i 
own case,” she recalls. Deb and her ""1
partner had‘ petitioned for her‘ right to ,
adopt her‘ p'artnelr’s'biol'o'gical son as i."
the “second parent." The_prob'atei‘ 
judge denied the petition, and ‘the ' “if

[:

  

 

‘ case‘ went to thestate S'upreme'Coui‘t',"’
. rrq

which handed down aidecisioii in’ ’ "'

 

have fond'memori‘es‘ o'f'ed'it'ing‘the" ‘*9’ "‘
paper with my son (now ll) inrny " ‘J’ ‘
lap in the weeihouirs (>f’tlfe morning.”

‘ Fred‘Kuhr took over-from" 
Deb Lashman and ‘stayed -on from’ ' ' ‘
1994 to 1996. "  ' ' ‘ 
7 “One of the'controversies "'5
that I will neve'r forget during my  
time as editor was the issue that
prompted.m0re letters to the-editor - 
than any other. Was it about gays in
the military, ant_i-discrimination Laws, 

about how much reade’rs"l"ove their ‘
‘Dykes To Watch Out For,’” Fred
writes. He’sVnow an,edito_r. at._th_e V —_ an;
Boston-based In Newsweekly - , ,W‘__.ij:
_ “I_ pr.inted,.a letterto the , ,.~-Q9;
editor from a Rutlandrarea church . , _,‘t
leader whose church distributed Out ._:.i=
In The Mo,uritaz'/is in its entryway:
This reader questioned what she _sa,w_--,v
asthe raciness of some ofAllison . . ».~
Bechdel’s cartoons and,wond.ered if,‘ 

printing. such explicit scenes ‘as les-. . 

bians engagedin oral sex was c_oun-- -,-
terproductive to the cornmunity’s , (,4
outreach to straight allies. '_ _.  at

“The result was an ' _-.:,
and female — who went so far as to ' 
argue that OITM shouldnever have ._ ,3,
published the original letter inrthe,  .
first place. The lesson: It’s called _ 
‘Dykes To Watch Out For’ for a rea- . ,.

:9

son. ._ ,
With some fill-in help from 
Deb Lashman, the paper took on a

new editor (or is it the other way - 
around?) — Chris Moes — in July »
1997. He ran the ‘paper until.October 2.,-
l998: “I remember seeing rain _ _ ,3
through my windshield_andjust feel», a.
ing so sick of it, it was in May I ,
think and I was doing a great deal of -
driving and it seemed to rain every- . 
day. OITM was, among a hundred 3,’.
other things, an opportunity to _ , , 

explore the state, and dis- , ,
>>