UVM to Sponsor LG BT
Aging Conference in

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fired student Jen tiflamary and wet. Fiona Patterson wit! coordinate April’-s eider conference.

 

rofessor Fiona Patterson, DSW,

ACSW, of UVM’s Department of

Social Work, and graduate student
Jennifer Mamary are heading up an effort
to bring together social workers and social
work students with members of the
LGBTQ communities who are dealing
with aging. The conference is planned for
April 30, 2004.

According to a press release, the
purpose is to “add knowledge and sensitiv-
ity to the relationship between LGBT eld-
ers and members of the human services
profession.”

The impetus for the conference is
that there is the opportunity for a multitude
of misunderstandings between social work-
ers and LGBT elders. “The needs of LGBT
elders are misunderstood when these indi-
viduals enter hospitals and other care facil-
ities,” was one example cited. The confer-
ence is co-sponsored by UVM’s
Department of Social Work.and RU12?
Community Center will be partially funded
by a grant from the Hartford Foundation
and the Council on Social Work Education
“to infuse aging into its curriculum.”

According to the conference plan-
ners — including students in the
Department of Social Work, Vermont queer
elders, and a representative from the
R.U.l .2? — the event will include a keynote
speaker and other professionals with expe-
rience in this field, yet to be named as of
press time.

For additional infonnation contact
Professor Fiona Patterson at 802-656-
9657, or email fpatters@uvm.edu, or
watch for a more detailed information in
the April issue of Out in the Mountains. V

.113, the proposed law

defining racial and gender

harassment in schools and
outlining the steps schools must
take to respond, was passed by the
Vermont House without amend-
ment, with only nine representa-
tives voting against.

Passage of the bill was
supported by R.U.l.2? and Equality
Vermont to deal with the racial
harassment students of color expe-
rience in overwhelmingly white
Vermont schools, and because the
bill also covers harassment based
on gender and sexual orientation.
The bill was introduced by Rep.
Mark Larsen (D-Burlington), who
works at Spectrum Youth Services
when not in the legislature.

Rep. Bill Lippert (D-
Hinesburg), a member of the House

Judiciary Committee, helped
include students’ families in the
bill, recognizing that a student
might be harassed because his or
her parents are of different races or
are gay or lesbian.

House Judiciary Chair-
woman Peg Florey (R-Pittsford),
who initially opposed the bill as
unnecessary, presented the bill on
the floor of the House, recalling
how she had been harassed in
childhood because her father was
the school janitor.

The bill was expected at
press time to be assigned to the
Senate Education Committee, led
by Senator Jim Condos (D-
Chittenden). For the bill to become
law, the committee must vote the
bill out with a positive recommen-
dation, and the Senate as a whole

  Harassment Bill Passes

must pass it with a simple majority
vote. Another committee may ask
to look at the bill before the floor
vote. If any changes are recom-
mended or made, the bill then goes
to a conference committee includ-
ing members of the House and
Senate, where the final version is
hammered out.

If there are no changes,
the Senate could vote by a simple
majority to “concur” with the
House’s action and language, and
send the bill to the governor.

As passed by the House,
the bill defines racial harassment as
“conduct directed at the characteris-
tics of a student’s or a student’s .
family member’s actual or per-
ceived race or color, and includes
the use of epithets, stereotypes,
racial slurs, comments, insults,

House

grassroots effort.”

Kaufman noted, however,
that the bill “did not go as far as it
should.” The bill leaves it up to

derogatory remarks, gestures,
threats, graffiti, display, or circula-
tion of written or visual material,
and taunts on manner of speech and
negative references to racial cus-
toms.”

Other forms of harassment
include “conduct directed at the
characteristics of a student’s or a
student’s family member’s actual or
perceived creed, national origin,
marital status, sex, sexual orienta-
tion, or disability.”

R.U.1 .2‘? Executive
Director Christopher Kaufman said,
“We’re glad that an alliance
between queer and anti-racist
organizations has worked together
to pass a bill that protects students.
We’re thrilled that Vermonters
called in to support the bill, and
glad to have been a part of a strong

individual districts to determine
what anti-racist or anti-harassment
training teachers would receive.
“There are few opportunities for
teachers to get consistent anti-
racism training,” he said.

“The bill remains reac-
tionary — its provisions come into
effect after an incident has hap-
pened. There is no provision for
preventing incidents,” Kaufman
said. Training often is put on the
back burner in the legislature
because any training requirement
that doesn’t come with the means to
pay for it “comes down as another
unfunded mandate,” he added.

“We’ll be back in the leg-
islature next session to help take

the next step,” Kaufman declared. V