Meadowdance

bers of the gltbq community are the
same things that were attractive to all of
us who are here now: the ability to join
in a celebratory, creative culture of peo-
ple who get a kick out of pooling their
efforts — where children are treated with
respect and consideration, where ecolog-
ically sound living is central, where we
can share talents and time with other
people of like mind," said Luc Reid, a
founding member.

_ Kristy and Jaime, a lesbian
couple then from Massachusetts, had
decided to check it out and stayed at
Meadowdance for three weeks last year
before moving on. The couple was inter-
ested in coming to Vermont for a civil
union, and had contact with
Meadowdance before moving in. They
found the people friendly and felt wel-
comed, but questioned some aspects of
the community. The work requirement —
then nearly 50 hours per week — was
more than they had bargained for, Kristy
said, and she and Jaime felt there was lit-
tle time to attend lgbtq events or gather-
ings outside Meadowdance.

‘ “We know we’re in a found-
ing stage," said member Amanda
Walden. “We have a limited number of
resources,” she said, indicating that as
finances improve and the membership
grows, the workload may be reduced.

Kristy and Jaime have other
concerns that, while the ideal goal is for
equality among all the members, a few
individuals appear to hold more power.
They were also surprised to learn that
members, via e-mail, had considered
using them as representation for the gay
community without contacting them '
first. Kristy and Jaime said they are not
endorsing the group, largely because of
group dynamics rather than gender
issues.

Community members agreed
that it can be hard to join the group
process. “Some people are more outspo-
ken than others,” Amanda admitted.

Luc said he heard concerns
about the power dynamic from another
prospective member who also decided to
leave. “People need to be vocal,” he
said, acknowledging that people like
himself who feel comfortable speaking
up are more likely to have their concerns
addressed.

A post-visit email exchange
sought to clarify further why a gay man
or lesbian would want to join a straight
intentional community, no matter how
well-intentioned that community is in
seeking diversity, especially given what
appears to be an isolationist tendency,
living and working together, and not
having independent access to transporta-
tion to glbtq support and events.

“I think that the impression
that we’re isolationist may be a mistaken
one,” Luc wrote. “We attend political
and entertainment events (for example,
most of our members attended the
[January] peace march); some of our
children go to the local public school
and we attend school events; those of us
who participate in an organized religion
worship locally; we see friends and
neighbors at stores and the co-op; we
meet folks at the library; we have local
friends over to visit; our children go
back and forth to their friends’ houses; in
the fall we’ll be opening a school that
will have room for a small number of
local kids from outside the community;
and so on. Really our level of isolation
isn’t particularly different from that of a
family with a home business." '

About independent access to
transportation, he explained, “Members
are welcome to keep private”vehicles,
and members who don’t do so have vir-

c_ontinued from front page

tually unrestricted access to vehicles in
community use. Not only are cars pro-
vided to independently travel to events
they want to attend, but Meadowdance
pays for fuel for local travel.”

Meadowdancer Sue Morris
joined the discussion about why lgbtq
peoplemight want to become members
of this community: “Living in a commu-
nity based on how you choose to live
your sexual life might not be as reward-
ing as choosing to live in a community
that shares not only those values, but
your other life values, your philosophy
of living, of treading lightly on the earth,
of communing with others to share work,
play and vision. As an egalitarian, child-
centered community that welcomes
human diversity, ecological sensibility,
mutual learning and joy, we welcome
people who share our vision of coopera-
tive living. How we live our sexual life
is only one aspect of who we are."

Luc continued, “There's a
sense here that children and adults
deserve and get respect; that you can
trust people to take care of things and to
take your feelings into account; that
you’ll be_ supported in your decisions;

that we’re doing our best to steward the
environment; and so on. People also
come here to live because they want to
be part of a solution for problems like
unchecked consumerism, enyironmental
destruction, and lack of connection
between individuals in the world.

“It also might be attractive to
live in a community of people who sup-
port your sexuality, rather than people
who tolerate it or worse, nail _‘Take Back
Vermont’ signs on their barns,” said Ltic.
“Certainly it’s been my impression that
gays and lesbians who have been here
have felt a level of comfort and freedom
that they don’t generally find outside the
GLBTQ community.

Asked what having glbtq
members does for them as a community,
Luc responded, “We don’t value a
woman in our community because she’s
a lesbian, or because she isn’t — and all
else being equal, we'd prefer that there
were both lesbians and straight woman
(and gay men and straight men and bi
men and women and transgendered men
and women), because being with a vari-
ety of people on a day to day basis, from
our point of view, enriches the experi-
ence of life." ’

The skeptical journalist
pushed a bit further, asking whether the
community might have an economic
agenda in recruiting lgbtq members who
might have a decreased likelihood of
having children.

“We value people over money
in any case," responded Luc, “although
not having children does make it easier
to get in if we’re in a financial or work
crunch. For instance, at this point we
can’t afford to take single parents of
small children, even though we hope to
be able to reverse that limitation quite
soon. Also, I expect we would attract
gay men and lesbians who disproportion-
ately do have children, because of our
focus on providing a supportive environ-
ment for children."

Amanda and her partner Ken
Walden are expecting their first baby in
July. They seem eager to open the com-
munity to a more diverse group.

Asked whether the communi-
ty would fund artificial insemination if a
lesbian member wanted to bear a child
after joining, Luc responded, “Interesting
question! It hasn't ever yet come up; we
would have to discuss it as a group to
come to a decision. I would suspect we’d
be inclined to fund such a thing, but
that's just my personal sense."

Pushed to answer related
questions — would the community exer-
cise veto power over that desire depend-
ing on community finances; would it
exercise veto power over a single or
married straight woman who wanted to
bear a child and could become pregnant
without medical intervention — the
answers suggested that Luc (and by
extension, Meadowdance) had not yet
worked out the details of true equality
where childbearing is concerned.

“We don’t consider it to be up
to the community whether or not some-
one has a child. Of course it has an
impact on the community, but as a group
we only really have powers over the

between 1997 and 2000, we had one par-
ticipant who was enthusiastic about the
community in large part because of his
interest in ecological sustainability. We
have long had a core agreement about
‘equality among all people, regardless of
race, color, gender, spirituality, sexual
orientation, background and age...’ but I
think he thought it was primarily lip
service. When the subject came up in a
political discussion and he realized that
the rest of us were actively supportive of
the glbtq community, he said of his fami-
ly ‘Yes, we tolerate them — but of course
we teach our children that it’s wrong.’
We told him he was in the wrong group.
He left.”

Top, Meadowdancer: gather for dlnner In a commons room at their temporary
Goddard College home. Above, lllledowdancera Ken and Amanda Walden are
looking lor a few good glbtq: as dlverslty pioneers.

things that we’ve agreed to cover as a
group, and having children is not one of
those things." That is, Luc later amend-
ed, “we as a community have decided
not to make any Agreements about peo-
ple having children, and therefore we
don’t exercise any control over that kind
of decision.”

“We have to get some pio-
neers here,” Ken said, “so members can
feel akin to people of another group.”

Looking at their current level
of diversity, members pointed out that,
while Meadowdance is primarily _
Caucasian and heterosexual at present,
some of the community's children have a
Hispanic father, and a few members
speak Spanish.

“We hope to grow at a slow
rate because of the intensive membership
process,” said Amanda, the community's
“Member Caretaker." She explained that
when a new family moves in, it changes
the dynamics of the community.

While the membership policy
seems complicated, in reality it wasn’t
that hard, Kristy said. Basically, prospec-
tive members must go through trial peri-
ods of living at Meadowdance, and they
must adhere to community Agreements.
To demonstrate the group's commitment
to human diversity, Luc Reid told the
following story:

“When we were forming,

Money Matters - Or Not

The financial picture is also taken into
consideration for potential membership..
The community claims that it welcomes
possible members who have no money
to invest and will work to find ways to
make that possible. On the other hand,
members would have to consider the
practicality of accepting as a member
someone, for example, who has unusual-
ly high health care costs. .

Asked whether members
agree to invest all their existinggassets,
such as retirement accounts, investments,
term insurance policies, stock dividends,
property — or the value derived from its
sale — cars, and so on, Luc Reid said no.

“We ask new members if they
have money they want to loan to the
community when they come in, but it’s
strictly up to individual discretion
whether they loan anything or not — if
indeed they have anything to loan, which
not everyone does,” Luc wrote in an
email. “I think that as a rule we would
tend to urge people not to liquidate
retirement funds or other assets, because
after all a person can’t be certain when
coming to Meadowdance that they’ll
stay forever. That’s certainly the general
intention, but of course people change
over time.”

Meadowdance is organized
financially as a limited liability partner-

ship in which the community holds its
land and businesses in common. Assets —
including land, buildings, computers,
and other resources held in common —
would pay any debts, Luc said, and indi-
viduals would not be held liable.
Individuals’ investments, however, could
be lost, if the community were to dis-
solve, he said.

Interestingly, two types of
membership are based on disability. A
blocking member is permitted to block
consensus, and a nonblocking member is
not allowed to. The current definition of
a nonblocking member is someone who
is dependent on others for daily living
due to a mental or emotional disability.
Luc explained that the distinction is
made so that “someone [who] can’t
understand what's going on, can’t over-
rule.” He said in five years, no one has
blocked consensus.

V Luc said it’s “amazing” how
close Meadowdance has come to achiev-
ing its ideals — except in their current
living situation.

Visions and Permits

With three years of planning and a cou-
ple more years of shared living behind
them, Meadowdancemembers are look-
ing to the future.

The community owns 200
acres of fields, woodlands, streams and a
pond in Marshfield, a house inhabited by
tenants, and a barn. The pond was once
used for an ice business, and until a
storm in 1912 destroyed the trees, there
was a maple sugaring business. The
group would like to bring the maples
back, Luc said.

Plans for the future ' V
Meadowdance include building a cluste
of homes and a community center on 20
acres, leaving the remaining 180 acres in
a mostly natural state. Possibly cars

won’t be allowed on the land any further _

than a roadside parking lot. As many as
75 people could live in the community.

Called a planned residential
development, or PRD, the clustered
housing is allowed within the conserva-
tion/forestry zone of the land. However,
the local Development Review Board
“appears to me to be much more cau-
tious about permitting PRDs in conser-
vation/forestry [zones] than in agricul-
ture/residential," Luc said. He thinks it
could take six months to get town
approval. Detailed plans or drawings
were not made available to OITM.

There may be some reserva-'
tions on the part of townspeople who
aren’t familiar with intentional commu-
nities such as Meadowdance. V
Community members say they are eager
to talk with neighbors to learn what their
concerns may be. Sue said one issue that
came up previously was possible light
pollution from the future community
buildings. That problem has been
addressed in the plans, which are being ‘
revised, she said.

Summing up, Sue explained,
“Egalitarianismisn't just a cool word,
it’s a philosophy that people are valuable
no matter what their sexual orientation,

no matter what their economic status, no
matter what their level "of education, no

matter what their background, interests,
race, or even taste for pickles is. It is a
deep felt and daily philosophy here. This
is a place where men can let out their
gentle, nurturing side with support and
females their strong, mathematical side.
That is something that is not available in
the common culture. Perhaps there are
people who are interested in living in _
that kind of place.” V

Lynn McNicol has lived in an intentional
community in the southern US and now

"lives in Burlington. Euan Bear briefly

lived and worked with a lesbian collec-
tive in Hinesburg a quarter century aga-