BY KEVIN Moss

iddlebury — Queer students, faculty,
Mand staff at Middlebury College

were surprised to return for the
spring semester and find that a Marine
recruiter was scheduled to appear, in spite of
the fact that th"'é military ban on open gay and
lesbian servicemen conflicts with the college’s
non-discrimination policy. Because of the
Solomon Amendment, which denies federal
funds to colleges and universities if they don’t
allow military recruiters, Middlebury allows
any employer on campus if its representatives
first hold a meeting to ‘explain’ the discrimina-
tory policy. ’ '

Marine Captain-David Doucette led
a discussionpof “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on
Tuesday, February 8. Over 160 students, facul-
ty, and staffattended. Under rigorous ques-
tioning, the recruiter’s comments stayed close
to the text of the policy. -

Members of the Middlebury College
community asked questions about such issues
as lesbian baiting, parallelsbetween arguments
used to exclude LGBT service members and ‘
those used against racially integrating the mili-
tary in the 1940s, and the fact that requiring
service members to lie would seem to be a‘

 Throug,

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Tlie Motions:

Middlebury College

Middlebury students stage a silent protest outside a talk given by Marine recruiter David Doucette

. breach of the service’s professed values of

honor and integrity.

Doucette claimed queer service
members would not be forced to lie, because
they cannot be asked direct questions about
homosexuality. When asked why it wasvbetter

for soldiers not to know someone serving with
them is queer, he drew an analogy to
pedophiles and bank robbers.

Statistics fueled more questions:
why are women twice as likely to be dis-

charged in proportion to their representation in.

the service? Why, if homosexuals are incom-
patible with good order and discipline, have

"discharges gone down since 2001, when we

are at war? Doucette’s most frequent answer:
“I don’t know.” ' _
The following day, Capt. Doucette

‘manned an information table at one of the stu-

dent dining halls, while concerned students,
with some faculty and staff, staged a silent
protest outside. They wore colorful gags and
stood at attention to represent the queer serv-

_ice members who are gagged by the law. JS

Woodward, one of the students who organized
the protest, collected signatures on a letter to
the President and Trustees of the College to
change the policy that allowed Doucette to
recruit on campus. Queer members of the col-
lege community and their allies plan a push to
change the college policy to ban all employers
who discriminate.

The Solomon Amendment has been
legally challenged by the Forum for Academic
and Individual Rights and was held as uncon-
stitutional by the Third Circuit Court of
Appeals. The case is being appealed to the
U.S. Supreme Court. V '

Kevin Moss is a professor of Russian at
Middlebury College, and a member of

  Orb   Weaver Attacker Pleads

iddlebury — The man
charged with attacking
Marian Pollack and

Marjorie Susman pled guilty in
Addison County District Court last
month. In mid-December, a man
broke into the women’s home in
Monkton, threatened to kill Susman,

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and attempted to stab P_ol1ock with a

I knife. The women fought off their
attacker, who then left, bleeding pro-
fusely from a head wound (see
0IT_ M , February 2005).

James Peck, 41, of_

Burlington, was arrested within an
hour in a truck driven by an accom-

Allil

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iplice. The truck matched the descrip-

tion of one seen driving away from
Orb Weaver Farm’ just after the
attack. ’

Peck, who had demanded
“weed” from’ the women during the
attack, pled guilty to burglary and
carrying a dangerous weapon in the

SliKUs°

‘ commissionof a felony. Judge

Christina Reiss accepted his abrupt
change of plea at what was supposed
to have been a “status hearing” and
sentenced him to 10 to 25 years in
prison; Peck began serving his sen-
tence immediately. Charges of aggra-
vated assault and kidnapping were

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dropped.

“We are very, very happy '
to put this behind us,” said Marjory
Sussman. “We were glad that John
Quinn, who was the prosecutor, took
it ‘as seriously as he did. I would
have wished that we didn’t have to
plea bargain it down to only two
crimes  I felt that the aggravated
assault was a very real charge and
wished that he had been charged
with that also, but we’ll take what
we get. - 4

“The whole thing seems
like a very strange dream,” she
added, “and‘I’m glad that it didn’t go
to trial, and I’m glad that it’s pretty
much over.” Sussman said she and
her partner Marian Pollack were not
in the courtroom for the sentencing.

' A month before Peck
attacked the lesbian dairy farmers,
someone vandalized more than 200
rounds of handmade cheese, nearly a
year’s production, by puncturing the
rinds. That crime remains unsolved.

After both attacks commu-
nity support poured in for the
cheesemakers. Some supporters sent
checks, which have been set aside
for a reward fund in the unsolved
crime. V