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, VEiRMON'I§'S,VOlCE FOR THE LiESBlAN,‘ GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY I

OutforDean, Dykes for Dean biliz ,

  
 

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l.GBTQs in Presidential Campaign

BY EUAN BEAR‘

Governor Howard Dean’s presidential cam-
paign is rolling. For nearly a year now, he
has been traveling the country, greeted with
standing ovations at gay pride celebrations and
other lgbt gatherings.iAt least two intemet-

’ based organizations — OutforDean.com and

Dykes for Dean, a Yahoo group — are mobiliz-
ing gays and lesbians to become active in his
campaign and to donate early and often.
Neither organization is an official affiliate of

V the Dean for America campaign.

Out for Dean’s Chris Cooper is part
of the team that in their spare time maintains
the OutforDean.com website and organized
house parties on National Coming Out Day,
October 11. Dean connected with those attend-
ing the panies by conference call that night.

The lgbt campaign organization is

the 29-year-old Cooper’s first foray into politi-

cal activism. “I stumbled into activism by
doing it. If you want something changed, you
get up and do it.” _

Cooper, based in Washington, D.C.,
and Jan Cadoret, the prime mover behind the
San Francisco-based Dykes for Dean, fielded
some questions about their organizations and
what Howard Dean’s,candidacy means to
them.

Out For Dean was founded by David‘

inside out:

this issue’s contents

VCARightsatRisk

D. 8 Terminator’s staff
picks threaten new
domestic partnerships law.

 a yearbefore the election; ‘andfonnerb A A I

V When I’m 64 p. 9
Vermont elder housing staff
are mostly clueless about
queer seniors. ’

Mariner in April 2003, “before the bubble” of
media attention and fundraising success put

 Howard Dean on front pages across the coun'- .

 Cooper, -a media/public relatioiis specialist
for the American Planning A_ssociation, a non-
profit public interest and research outfit, joined
within the first month. “I found myself yet
again screaming at the TV news, wondering
why the rest of the country couldn’t see— the
insanity I was seeing,” he said. V
“I researched the candidates and

made a practical decision to support the one
who is most in line with my beliefs and could
pass the electability laugh test. Howard Dean
was the one,” Cooper explained. He admitted
that he did not agree with every stand Dean has
taken, citing Dean’s position on the death

\ penalty as an example, “but I’ve been able to

_ witness the process he takes to get to his posi-

tions, and I can respect that process.”

At this point, Cooper said, “I can’t
just be a passive observer, and politics
becomes an exercise in persuasion. We "need to
take electability back from the right wing.”

Jan Cadoret, a 47-year-old carpenter-

V One Diaper at a
Time p. 10 Scott
Sherman is changing the
world, and his self-image,’

innkeeper-website builder-intemet matchmaker,
founded Dykes for Dean on August 6, 2003. .

‘fDean—w_as rising up in the polls, and I had par-p _

ticipated in ‘t'he"MoveOn.oi'g pol]. Ilthouglit I
was picking an underdog, and then he came out
with 43 or 44 percent. I thought, ‘Oh my god,
other people are supporting him too!’”

When Cadoret looked at a break-
down of the support for Howard Dean among
the gay and lesbian community, it was about
two to one men. “Lesbians tend to gravitate to
stuff for women. Dykes for Dean was a way

' for me to promote him to my peers.”

Cadoret said that she had “never
cared about politics” before the current cam-
paign. “But I’ve been bitching about Bush for
so long. When Dean speaks, I get the feeling
that he’s a real guy. Dean is head and shoulders

above the rest of the [Democratic] candidates.”
_ Out for Dean contacted Cadoret
within a week of her organization’s founding to
ask whether she would become an associate.
“Out for Dean was pretty clear that they didn’t
want to just be a bunch of gay white guys,”
Cadoret said. She agreed to associate, but

by being a dad.

 

V. 111e Cho-sen One
p. 19 Sexy “revolutionary”
cracks up a crowd at UVM

declined a closer tie.

As of mid-October Dykes for Dean
'had..l76 members nationwide with a distribu-
tion ‘rhmugh.~27 states'— ‘ii‘icludi'rig'*Veririorit~—
and Washington, D.C. Out for Dean ha_s chap-
ters in 24 states and Washington, DC. There is
currently no chapter of Out for Dean in the
candidate's home state of Vermont, though
Cooper maintained that lgbts in the missing
states are involved in a state or city chapter of
Dean’s official campaign organization. ‘

“With Dean as a candidate, there is
no way that the Democrats — and our commu-
nity — can run from this issue [lesbian and gay
equa1ity],” Cooper said.

Cadoret’s National Coming Out Day
Dykes for Dean house party hosted 40 women
with 14 volunteers and a six-piece Dixieland
band (three lesbians, three gay men, all Dean
supporters, according to Cadoret). The party
raised $1,000 for the Dean campaign and was
in on a nationwide conference call with the
candidate.

Cooper's Washington, DC NCOD -

I party had registered the largest amount in

online campaign pledges by rriidnight on the
Thursday before, so he was given one of two
“guaranteed” question slots for the conference
call. He and his party-goers decided to dedicate
their question to transgender issues.-

_ “During his initial comments about
lgbt equality,

Dean recalled continued on p. 3

News 1-3
Editorial 4
Letters 5
Features 6, 8-13
Views 14 - 18
Arts 1 9-20
Calendar 22
Community Compass 22
The Source 25
Classifieds '28
Gayity 29

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