- A Place

out in the mountains

at  I a  C°"ll”Ued from I707“ Page

peace and very active." Alter the inteniew she
and her partner gave to a reponer from The
New York Times was reprinted in the
Montpelier Timer Argus. that was when the
change began. “In 20()0 when the shit hit the
fan. I found myself in the middle of ‘Take Back
Vermont’ land. People who had been friends
and neighbors suddenly became very hostile. I
withdrew my energy from my local community
to focus on a larger, different, more welcoming
community — ultimately the Democratic Party —
withashortstopattheFreedomtoMarryTask
Force.

“It was a conscious transference, a
choice to expend my energy for a greater
good,” Weiss concluded. “In 2002 I felt an

absolute obligation to get [Orange County state ‘

Senator Mark MacDonald’s] seat back. I felt I
owed a lot of people in 2(X)2. He [had] stepped
up for me, and I was ready and willing to fulfill
 obligation.” '

hpfihg lilo World

Representative-elect Jason Lorber comes from
a different place, politically and geographically.
He moved to Vermont in 2lX)2 from San
Francisco after graduating from Stanford with
an MBA and having founded a consulting busi-
ness. The focus of the business — nonprofits and
healthcare - is part of a “public service” and
“community building” approach Lorber identi-
fies as driving his career. In addition, he has
been active on nonprofit boards.

“Community building is part of our
mission,” Lorber explained in an interview.
“Andbythatlmeanmaltingtheworldabetter
place. Strengthening the cormnunity. Working
for civil and equal fights. for healthcare servic-
es, addressing domestic violence. It’s important
to do work that's socially responsible. I’ve ch_o-
sentousemydegreetoworkonsocial issues,
and I’ve donated my services at times.”

Lorber went on to say that since the
election he's “now on the Board of Directors of
the State of Vermont. I’m getting paid for it —
but not at my usual rate.” He sees electoral pol-
itics not as a leap from community activism,
but a logical extension. “I’m continuing to
advocate for issues that concern me. It wasn't
like one day Igwoke up and said, ‘Oh, I'll enter
poIitics.’All choices have potential political
consequences. I’m working for tiklam olam,
repairing the world.”

Born Polllcd
Steve Howard and Keith Goslant are both long-
time veterans of the Vermont political scene.

Howard came out while in ollice (in I997), and
Goslant attained local office in Plainlield as an
out gay man from the beginning of his tenure
as a justice of the peace and a selectboard
member who became the defacto ‘‘mayor‘‘ of
Plainfield as chainnan of the selectboard.

Goslanr. of course. is one of the
founders of what is now Equality Vemiont - a
Statehouse ‘insider’ organization that tracks
bills affecting the Igbt communities. He has
been the lgbt communities‘ co-liaison to the
Governor since Madeleine Kunin held that
office. He co-fotmded Vemiont CARES and
worked on the passage of the measure to
include “sexual orientation" in the list of pro-
tected classes in the anti-discrimination bill and
to include transgender individuals in the Hate
Crimes bill. He was almost born political.

“I grew up with Goddard College in
our backyard. Goddard had a queer dorm in
I972!" He credited his political confidence to
his supportive family and the horne-grown
acceptance of his town. “Good or bad. I was
their native son. There could be a lot of anti-
gay language, but not when someone started
using it about ‘our own.”

He recalled that founding the AIDS
organization “came from radical politics — we
were going up against mainstream agencies that
weren't meeting our 

Goslant, who works at the Vermont
State Hospital, remembered that after he had
been appointed as co-liaison. “I used to go to
the legislature when I had time off and pick a
committee. I'd go sit in a comer and watch all
the legislators shuffle their papers and look at
me and sit there wondering what was the gay
issue in the bill they were considering. The leg-
islature was just a larger platform. I wasn’t
becoming part of mainstream politics, I was
confronting mainstream politics.“

Steve Howard of Rutland likewise
grew up with a political bent. According to an
Advocate article about him as the youngest
state party chair in the country in I997, Howard
started campaigning - for Madeleine Kunin -
when he was 10. In 1986 when he was I4, he
campaigned for Senator Patrick Leahy. “Politics
is not new for me," Howard declared in a
recent interview.

“Civil unions might have raised the
energy to be more directly involved," he
mused, “but however it has happened, it is a
welcome phenomenon." When we spoke —
before the elections - he said Vermont is actual-
Iy behind other states in having a politically
organized and involved Igbt community, citing

Massachusetts as better organized.

What Vemiont necds. he said. is a
solid political entity whose cndorscmcnt would
be sought after because it would mean sonic-
thing in temis ofgctting volunteers to work on
—campaigns. Asked about a potential Vcnnunt
chapter of the Stonewall Dcmocr.its ta national
political organization). Hon ard said it would
help. “no question

It was no extra pressure to run a cam-
paign for Cheryl Rivers. he said. because of her
solid support for gay issues. “I wouldn't work
for a candidate that it was a problem for."

Progeulve Polllcs

Progressive Party Chairwoman Martha Abbott
of Underhill is another old hand in the political
struggle. although until the last  much of
it might not be classified as "mainstream." In a
phone conversation. she was careful to draw a
distinction: "I'm in politics and I'm a lesbian.
but I'm not in politics as a lesbian."

The comment was typical of the care
with which she chooses her words. She chame-
terized herself as "over-prepared." and insisted
on at least beginning the conversation by email
because "I'm much better at writing down what
I want to say."

She “became involved with electoral
politics in I970 through the student and anti-
war movements. A group of people in Vermont
were forming a third party (Liberty Union) as
an alternative to the two major parties" which
were beholden to what was then called “the
military-industrial complex" — that era's
Hallibunons. She was the first woman to run
for governor in Vermont. and the ticket includ-
ed Bemie Sanders in one of his first statewide _
races.

"I was 24 and I thought I knew
everything." she laughs. “It's harder to [run for
ofiice] now because you're more aware of the
enormity of everything." She wasn't out to her-
self then. She came out in I976. “When I came
out, it was the most natural thing in the world."

Both of her parents were lifelong
Republicans when she joined Liberty Union.
Her father remained one until he died, while
her mother “went straight from being a
Republican to being in the People's Party."

Abbott served four years as a
Progressive on the Burlington City Council in
the l990s. She was elected chair of the
Progressives in 2001.

The problem as she sees it is “How
do you get people to not be hoodwinked into
voting against their own self-interest’? You have
to reach people on all the [moral values and
economic] issues at once as a package deal
without letting the values issues be used against
you."

Why is it that none of the media has
conveyed the idea that “marriage is a very con-
servative institution," she wonders in thinking
about the effect of the gay marriage bans

appmvcd in the clcction. “I hope that in this
country over the next ten years. the choices of
gay s and lesbians [whether to many or not]
will be lL'\§ of a hot-button issue."

l.lkc\\l.\L'. for \'crrnoriI. "I hope that
o\ er the next ten years Vcnnont n ill ht.'I.'tIl'llt.'
fully a tlircc-pan_v statc."

Flehflnn I Guy with En-my

Susan Murray has the support and affection of
Vermont's lesbians and gay men for her mlc in
Baker r Slult’ and in getting legislation that rec-
ognizes our relationships for all stale-bestowed
rights. benefits. and responsibilities. She also
cams points for engineering the defeat of a vir-
ulcntly anti-civil union I2-year state senate
incumbent in favor of Claire Aycr in Addison
County two years ago. Aycr was comfonably
rc-clcctcd this year.

The backlash clcction of 2000. she
said. “awakened the community to the realities
of politics. We lobbied the politicians very hard
[to get civil unions passed]. and the politicians
were expecting us to support them. All the gay
and lesbians citizens active at the State House
became active in campaigns." Some of that
activity was fund raising to the tune of “several
hundred thousand dollars

The political action committee that
grew out of Vcnnonters for Civil Unions “fun-
nclcd both money and volunteers to campaigns.
and in 2002. some politicians continued to ask
us for help. By then some of our volunteers had
become quite politically savvy." Murray
remembered.

"I worked for Claire to help rid the
legislature of a gay rights enemy." Murray
declared. And now, "The gay community has
awakened. We're not just a single-issue con-

stitucncy. We are working at a grassroots level."

This year. Murray worked on cam-
paigns Icss formally in "breakfast meetings.
strategy sessions. on fundraising and mailing
postcards. It helps to have had a broad range of
experience in the law. in lesbian and gay legal
issues." such as adoption rights, "and to have a
historical perspective."

There's “less ghettoization" of issues.
Murray suggested. “Health care is imponant. I15
is marriage equality. and that affects tax policy.
We care about the environment. Our issues are
broadening and ‘mainstreaming.’

“Of course civil unions were a big
deal in 2000. and a lot of closeted or otherwise
quiet gays and lesbians came out - in public!
Once you've done that. there's no reason to
stay quiet any longer."

There are active lesbians, gay men.
and transfolk at every level of politics — from
schoolboards and justices of the peace to town
councils, mayors. legislators and eventually the
govemor’s ofiice. I suspect we carry that “fair-
ness gene" with us, influencing those with
whom we work. And that is what will help us
survive the next four years. V