Rl3.t.2?s Khristian Kemp-fletisser opens the discussion. fieatee behind him are {i to r) Ken Woteington, Lil Verne.-7,

Stacey Morn, ma Steaemara, and Ewan fleas.

 

Bv JUDITH ,,BECKETT

it Friday July IS five members ofa dis-
cusS.i,on panel, “Changing Minds,
Changing Religious Communities: LGBT

issues‘ and religion.” met at Christ Church
_ Presbyterian on the University of Vermont

Campus to talk about communities of faith and
LGBT people. The program was sponsored by
R.U.l.2? and Christ Church Presbyterian.
Khristian Kemp-DeLisser of R.U. I .2? was the
moderator.

Lil Venner, the first speaker, was co-
founder of an area chapter of Parents, Family, &
Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Working
with the Freedom to Marry Task Force. she testi-
fied in Montpelier in behalf of Civil Unions. In
addition, she is working for full inclusion of
LGBT persons in the United Methodist Church.
Venner described the governing structure of the
Methodist Church and outlined the history of the
Methodist position on inclusivity..She concluded
that she believes that her church will not change to
include LGBT people “in the near future” but said

“I am going to see it through.” When asked why
she remains within the church, she responded,
“I’m the flea that makes the dog scratch.”

Ken Wolvington, the second speaker, is
a life-long Presbyterian and an elder in Christ
Church, Presbyterian (CCP). He has served on the
board of Outright Vermont and testified in support
of Civil Unions. He also served on the Board of
Directors of the National More Light Church
Network. More Light Presbyterians believe that
God continues to shed new light on the teachings
of Jesus and work toward full participation of
LGBT people in the life and ministry of their
church.

Wolvington spoke about the long-stand-
ing conflict between CCP and the Presbyterian
Church U.S.A.(PCUSA) thatibegan in 1984 when
Christ Church declared itself a More Light
Church. Since unanimously adopting a resolution '

‘ of dissent in l997against constitutional

Amendment B prohibiting the ordination of GLBT
members, CCP has been threatened with having
their pastors dismissed and the church taken over
by an administrative commission.

Through a_ complex and nonintuitive

interpretation of the problematic clause, CCP has
now armounced to the denomination that it is in
compliance with the provision, while still welcom-
ing LGBTQ people to full participation in worship
and leadership. Wolvington does not foresee a
change but rather a north-south split in his church
around the issue. ~
Stacey‘ Home, a choir member and an
elder at CCP who has served on the Youth
Advisory Board of the Presbytery of Northern
New England, spoke next. Recently retumed from
the 215th PCUSA General Assembly in Colorado,
Home believes that the Presbyterian Church will
change because of the strong queer presence in the
church and because youth, who are being heavily
recruited for the seminary by a church that is short
4,000 pastors, are demanding it.
Elizabeth Stedman is ,a postulant for

Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont.
Stedman spoke of the need for progressive and
lefi-leaning Christians to reclaim from the reli-
gious right what she called “hi-jacked Christian
concepts” and moral authority. She believes that
progressive and main line churches need to be
strong activists and that “queer people of faith and

 

their friends” need to articulate their beliefs, link
them to their lives of faith, and make them public.
They need to “come out” as Christians and bear
witness. ,

She asked for more “evangelism”
(another hijacked concept) among liberal church
members so that like-minded people can find each
other and build community. She reported that the
Episcopal Church is now struggling with whether
or not to include a blessing for same sex unions in
the Book of Common Prayer that guides their
liturgy. The Vermont Episcopal Church is leading
the way by using the legalization of same-sex
unions to hasten the necessary changes.

, Euan Bear, a longtime political activist
and currently editor of Out in the Mountains (but
not representing the paper), identifiedrherself as
the “skeptic" on the panel. She said she grew up ir
the United Church of Christ but became a fervent
bom-again Christian after graduation from high
school. lncollege, she became an expert at “wit-
nessing” her faith, but when she and a female
lover founded the second college gay-straight
alliance in Maine, they were prayed over,
preached at, and finally asked to leave their prayer
group because they refused to “repent.”

Bear referred to the “holocaust of perse-
cution of the last 1000 years” suffered by LGBT
people and said the churches must apologize for
their complicity in the “suppression, torture and
death” of our people. She characterized as “arro-
gant” that churches vote on whether they will
“allow us” to name ourselves aloud in their
churches or whether our relationships are worthy
of the word “marriage.” .

She suggested that churches doing out-
reach to the lgbtq communities should consider
providing financial and volunteer support for the
LGBT political and health organizations that have

. sustained us spiritually for decades. Finally, she

asked if we really need a church to find the “spirit
that moves us” and to do the good work we do.

Khristian Kemp-DeLisser as moderator
had the last word, reminding us that, whilethe
panel members were friendly to the GLBT com-
munity, for many of us organized religion is a
source of shame, stigma, and rejection. He added
that the GLBT community includes many individ-
uals of other religious traditions not represented or
the panel such as Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and
pagan.

The small audience of thirteen reflected
a diversity of age, race, sexual preference, and
spiritual persuasion that sparked a lively discus-
sion during the reception that followed. Kemp-
DeLisser and Horn indicated that they hoped this
would be the first in a series of community discus
sions on religion and the lgbtq community. V

Vermont Exxon-Mobil Proxy Votes Cancel Out .

'0 different fund managers han-
I dling Vennont retirement funds
voted “I80 degrees opposite" last
May on whether Exxon-Mobil should
restore a Mobil Corporation lesbian, gay
and transgender anti-discrimination poli-
cy, according to State Treasurer Jeb
Spaulding. The initiative was defeated
when 27percent of shareholder proxies
were voted in favor, leaving Exxon-Mobil
as one of just 10 Fortune I00 companies
without an anti-discrimination policy.
Voting share proxies in a con-

scious and deliberate manner to advance

state economic and social interests was a
campaign issue for Spaulding in the 2002
election.

The management of the retire-
ment funds for teachers and state employ-
ees rests with the Treasurer’s office, but
the fiduciary responsibility is vested in
each fund’s board of directors, Spaulding
explained. He had begun a discussion
with the state employees’ retirement fund
board regarding voting proxies in
February, he said. “But it’s a long educa-

tional process.” ,

In search of examples to illus-
trate why Vermont’s shares should be
actively voted, Spaulding said he called
various fund managers to find out how
they had voted on several questions dur-
ing annualmeetings this spring. He dis-
covered that two different fund managers
for the teachers’ retirement fund had
voted in opposite ways on the Exxon-
Mobil anti-discrimination policy question
— one voted for and one against.

Spaulding noted that nondis-

crimination language is state policy and
law. “I find it inappropriate that a fund
manager would vote against such a policy.
I regret that we didn’t get this going in
time to have an impact on this vote,” he
said. “I didn’t know I ’d have this opportu-
nity to impact an issue of importance for
the gay and lesbian community. I was
unpleasantly surprised,” he added, to find
that some proxies had been voted against
inclusive policies.

Some proxy issues are strictly
money-management related (such as
“expensing stock options”), and “some
are just the right thing to do," he said.

The opposite votes by separate

fund managers demonstrated that the stati
“does not have a defensible policy,"
Spaulding said. The board goveming the
state employees’ retirement fund has
authorized the Treasurer ’s office to searcl
for a firm (through a bid process) to help
the state develop proxy-voting guidelines
and to monitor and audit the proxy voting
of fund managers.

Spaulding was meeting with
the state teachers’ retirement fund board
as OITM went to press. He planned to
seek that board’s support for a similar
effort. V