Undoing Racism?
I want to share an experience which

. occurred while Helen Jean Reindell

(Uprooting Racism Task Force of VT
Conference of United Churches of Christ),
Arthur Washington & Martha Daley (par-
ents who are now self-advocates) and I
(VT Anti-Racism Action Team and
Women’s International League for Peace
& Freedom) were sitting in the Education
Committee deliberations about H.113, the
Racial Harassment in Schools Bill, on
Wednesday, May 14, beginning at 8:30 in
the morning.

The abject ignorance, the
insensitivity. the lack of factual informa-
tion, the lack of love, the lack of respect
for the humanity of all, the bury-the-head-
in-the-sand attitudes displayed by many in
the room prompted Arthur to ask for the
floor. Representative Ann Siebert (one of
the champions, let me say) spoke FOR
Arthur speaking, and he was granted the
floor. I followed, and am still asking “do
you really think the status quo is work-
ing??" It was impossible to just sit and lis-
ten to a lot of what was being said without
asking to speak. It is so imperative for the
people to witness these deliberations; I
suspect, even with some of the gross

_ statements made that day, that leaders

speak with even more insensitivity when
“the people” are not present.
Representatives Mark Larson

and Steve Hintgen and Ann Siebert were
articulate, patient, cool-headed and strong
in their advocacy for the bill.
Representative George Cross was good,
especially at interpretation of policy. (He
also spoke with Arthur, Martha and me at

.length during the lunch break.) Others

present were Representatives Ernest
Shand and Francis Brooks. There were
quite a few people in the small, crowded,
room on the third floor of the State
House.

So, deliberations went on and
on, there was not even a dinner break.
They ended with a continuance for the
following Friday afiemoon. I did call a
couple of people and asked if they could
be the watchdog crew sitting in on the'
deliberations. Again, it is so important to
have “the people” witnessing delibera-
tions especially when the issues (racism,
sexism, classism, anti-semitism, homo-
phobism, heterosexism, looksism, mental-
ism, ableism, militarism, etc.) are being
deliberated.

I want to say that although
many people in that room seemed to want
to maintain the status quo, there were a
few there who see things differently and
spoke quite eloquently to their position.

I spoke with Representative
Mark Larson to see what is in store. Since
the vote on Friday was 6-to-5, the bill was
returned to the House for motion to go to

the Judiciary. It is not expected to get out
of the Judiciary this tenn, but will be
deliberated in the Judiciary in the fall and"
then on to the Senate floor this coming
fall.

I It was a scary experience for
people in my group, concerned that the
entire bill might be sabotaged, and/or
watered down to uselessness. It is very
hard, very hard, to hear some people talk-
ing in what felt to me like racist terms.

Dear men and women, we can-
not keep on doing it the way we’re doing
it. Something has to change. By what
means? I am totally angry, in pain, dis-
eased about the racism, the classism, the
militaristic mentality, the misogyny, and
other oppression that gets swept under the
rug in the name of “almost everything is
okay in the schools.” It’s not.-

Ask the Safe School Unit of
Department of Education: they also get
lots of complaints. (Perhaps they need to
let Vermont residents know about them?)
Ask the Human Rights Commission, ask
the VT Anti-Racism Action Team, ask the
Burlington Anti-Racism Coalition, ask
Uprooting Racism Task Force of the VT
Conference of United Churches of Christ,
ask the African American Alliance of the
Northeast Kingdom, and so many others.
The demographics in Vermont are chang-
ing by leaps and bounds and there is not
much preparation that I can see regarding

these important changes.

Rep. Mark Larson would like
to see some people get_ together after the
Session, to talk about where we go from
here. Who can be part of that group?

Thanks for listening. Thanks
for anticipated response. I am glad you
are the way you are in the world.

Paij Wadley-Bailey
VARAT « ‘
Montpelier

Three Reasons

“Ten Reasons Why Militarism Is Bad for
Gay People” (Ryn Gluckman — May
issue)? Maybe  Maybe not.

But, I can think of ten reasons
why I LIKE the United States Military.
I’ll just give you three. One: I feel safe
they exist to protect us. Two: The Evil
Saddam is gone. And Three: They are
incredibly HOT and SEXY. Semper Fi!

Michael Sebastian Luna
Jetfersonville

silence = Hypocrisy

You talk about the silence of the
Republican Party regarding Santorum’s
remarks. That is to be expected. But in my
home state of New York, liberal Chuck
Schumer made a weak comment afler
having been cajoled for over a week, and

Iette rs

liberal Hillary Clinton, to date, still has
not commented. Why do the Democrats
think they own the gay vote? Do Hillary
and others feel that they will only incense
the Republican voters and they have the
gay votes in their pockets already? Please
comment.

Andrew Conte
Jackson Heights, NY

Corrections ,

In last month’s editorial “Homophobia,
Continued," I wrote that “Among the
Democratic candidates for president, Sen.
Bob Kerry was first off the mark" in
responding to homophobic comments by
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick
Santorum. Of course, it was
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Bob
Kerry is a former US Senator from
Nebraska, currently a college president,
but not a Democratic candidate for
President of the United States.

And a sharp-eyed reader of our web edi-
tion pointed out that Bush learned every-
thing he knew about diplomacy in

“kindergarden,” which should have been

“kindergarten” in the “At Witt‘s End” car- ‘

toon.

UVM considers Gender Identity studies Minor

BY STACEY HORN

new minor with coursework in

LGBT and queer studies is in the
works at UVM. The proposed minor, to
be listed under the Women’s Studies
program. is called Sexuality and
Gender Identity Studies, and it may be
available to students by the fall of
2005.

Though the process of get-
ting the minor in place has been slow,
Assistant Professor Valerie Rohy
expects the proposal will be approved
once all the administrative requirements
have been met. She does not expect
opposition to the content of the minor
from the administration. Student
activist Adam Dubin adds that the
remaining work now is just “hammer-

. ing out logistics."

The proposal Rohy has draft-
ed asks for no new courses and no extra
funding but instead identifies existing
courses that will fulfill the program.
The only course in the proposal that has

 
   

at witt's end

not yet been taught is “Introduction to
Gender and Sexuality Studies,” and the
Women’s Studies department has found
funding and staff to begin teaching it
this fall. According to Dubin, the
course is already full, with a waiting
list. '

So far, 17 faculty members
who either teach or are committed to
teaching courses that will fulfill the
minor have signed on. Some core
courses for‘ the minor will include,
“Gender and Sexuality in Literary
Studies,” “Advanced Topics in Space,
Power and Identity,” “Sexual Identities:
LGBT Identities and Development,”
“Sociology of Heterosexuality.”

Rohy began drafiing the pro-
posal for the minor this spring, based
on student, faculty and staff interest
that has grown steadily for the past few
years. Other UVM courses that deal
with queer issues have enjoyed healthy
enrollments. '

According to Dorothea
Brauer, coordinator of Lesbian, Gay,-
Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and
Allied Services at UVM, students have

begun “to expect to see this issue
addressed in the classroom.” Brauer has
been sounding out faculty, staff-and stu-
dents on the topic of a queer studies
program since 2001.

Despite widespread interest,
Brauer learned, “every department was
pulling back, struggling to cover cours-
es.” In the fall of 2002, however,
Dubin, an LGBT ally who will be a
senior this fall, approached both Brauer
and Rohy about creating a queer studies
minor.

Dubin became interested in
establishing a queer studies program
when he met with the student organiza-
tion “Free to Be LGBTQA” during his
(unsuccessful) run for student govem-
ment president. Brauer credits Dubin
with “making sure that this project did-
n’t lose momentum,” and adds, “He
doesn’t quit. He keeps working at it.”

Among‘ the project’s most
persistent individuals are Rohy, Brauer,
Dubin, Glen Elder (Associate Professor
of Geography), Helga Schreckenberger
(chair of Women’s Studies) and UVM
student Caitlin Daniel-McCarter.

Daniel-'McCarter, president of Free to
Be, has chosen queer studies as the
concentration of her Women’s Studies
major, which she will complete in the
Spring of 2004.

She explains, “My part was
letting people know what’s out there,
what’s missing.” While many courses
deal with LGBT issues, “the concentra-
tion of LGBT content in my classes has
not been really high.” Courses tend to
look at gender through a traditional
male-female binary lens and in the con-
text of heterosexual relationships.
Students like Daniel-McCarter require a
more overt emphasis on LGBT issues
and deconstruction of gender norms to
fulfill their program of study.

In the fall of 2002, when
Dubin approached the'Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences about the
possibility of an LGBT Studies minor,
he was told that the college was open to
a minor that could be launched using
only existing resources. ‘

According to Rohy and
Brauer, Schreckenberger’s work in pro-
viding this course through the Women’s

Before Stonewall

The Love That Dare

Not Speak
Its Name

 

The Love That
Cannot Pronounce

2003

Its Name

 $ to-:5; l

Studies department has also been essen-
tial.

The placement ofthe

Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies
minor under Women’s Studies is inten-
tional. Brauer notes that historically
Women’s Studies has relied on a binary
gender opposition to define the catego-
ry “women” and fight for the rights of
that group. However, deconstructing the
system of gender is the current focus of
many Women’s Studies and Gender
Studies programs throughout the nation.

By naming the minor

Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies
rather than “LGBT Studies” or “Queer
Studies," the committee intended to
invite students who may not identify as
LGBT or allies. According to Daniel-
McCarter, about half of the students in
her “Queer American Literature” class
were not active in the LGBT communi-
ty at UVM, and were “so excited to
learn” about the course’s material.
Dubin, who also took the class, stresses
that coursework in queer studies “is not
limited to queer people.”

When asked what she plans
to do with her queer studies concentra-
tion, Daniel-McCarter replies, “That’s
the million-dollar question." She says
she’d like to “remain an activist profes-
sionally” and has been investigating
law school. In particular, she’s interest-
ed in pursuing transgender rights. She
adds, “It would be cool if we could
take over and have this whole slew of
LGBT lawyers and politicians.”

The proposal acknowledges
that some students who complete the
Sexuality and Gender Identity Studies
minor may go on to pursue law. while
others might pursue careers related to
psychology or social work and still
others may go on to the growing num-

' ber of graduate programs related to
queer studies. Dubin hopes that UVM
“will see this as something intrinsic to
a liberal arts education," and that
“other schools use our model to build
LGBT prograrnsff V