Diversity in Marriage?

Today’s N YTimes says that Bush
plans a 1.5 billion dollar effort to -
protect "Sexual Diversity in
Marriage" — that is, of course, not
what he calls it. But I think this is
what we should start calling it.

It is clear that if the feder-
al govemment is going to spend that
much on this campaign against gay
marriage, sexually diverse marriage
must be in real trouble. Can you
imagine anything that a relatively
small batch of homosexuals who
want to get married could do to the
vaunted institution that would be
worthy ofa 1.5 billion dollar tax-
supported expenditure?

And, if Bush figures (as I
do) that 10 percent of that tax sup-
ported funding comes from queer
pocket books in the first place, this
certainly is an interesting way to go
into his election campaign. \

I think it is time for queers
to start a $100,000-plus campaign to

get out the word that every queer in
the nationmust come out to every-
one close to them. This would help
make sure people who might press
their representatives to vote for
funding Bush’s pro—heterosexual
marriage bill to vote on the other
side ofthis issue.

I guess my normally fairly
apolitical self is becoming a whole
lot more political as this man from
Texas plays out all his cards. I guess
what angers me the most is that he
thinks he has a mandate to do all
this stuff. Hopefully the folks who
voted against him in the 2000 race
will remember in November 2004
that the majority voted for an entire-
ly different outlook.

Bob Wolff
Randolph

Make the can

Over 70 percent of Vermonters sup-
port medical marijuana. Governor
Douglas does not. His excuse is that
it is illegal at the federal level.
Reimportation of prescription drugs
is illegal at the federal level, too, but
because something is illegal does
not mean that it is wrong. It was
illegal to help slaves escape to free-
dom, yet many helped. It was illegal
for Rosa Parks to sit in the front of
the bus, yet she did.

We need to take the moral
high ground, we need compassion
for the sickest Vermonters, and we
need to tell Governor Douglas that
he should help S.76 pass through the
House and sign it when it reach[es]
his desk. Please, call the Governor
at l-800-649-6825.

Hardy Machia
Grand Isle

Care_About Language

I was very pleased to see reviews of
New Victoria Publishers’ three new
books in the January Out In The
Mountains. New Victoria is one of
the few lesbian publishing houses
left, as so many lesbian / feminist
publishers and bookstores have
closed their doors in the last three or
four years. We rely on these reviews
to get the word out about our books.
I feel I need to respond,

however, to the reviewer’s com-
ments that we underestimate the
intelligence of our readers, or that
we don’t care about language. The
copyof Sudden Loss of Serenity she
received was what we call a “pre-
pub copy” — an uncorrected proof
we send out a few months before the
book actually goes to the press.
Many large review media require
these, and won’t review the book if
it is already published. I am sorry if
that was not made clear to this
reviewer.

 

letters

Although we are small and
undercapitalized, we can afford to
paya proofreader. The typos will
certainly be corrected by the time
the book goes to press.

Beth Dingman
New Victoria Publisher
Norwich

The publicity sheet we got with the
book indicated an October 2003
release date, and since it was about
that time we got the book, we
assumed it was the finished product '
~ hence the shock at the number of
typos. The book was not marked as
an uncorrected proof Thanks for the
explanation. ~ Ed. ’

Correction

Because the source was confused, so
were we, but the R.U.l.2? annual
fundraising dinner featuring NGLTF
director Matt Foreman is on
Saturday, April 10, not on Easter
Sunday.

 
   

Ieah wittenburg

MERCURY IN TUNA
IT'S A CAN OF WORMS

   

 

Q I-crews ska (Q aoo 4