f. Kudos to Outgoing Editor Euan Bear We want to thank you for sharing your tal- ent and your dedication with all of us who read and love OITM. You are a shining star in the GLBTQ communityll ' - BEV YOUREE AND CAROL NEPTON Berkshire, VT Gays, Catholics and the Vatican It is becoming more problematic to be both Gay and Catholic. On the one hand you have a Church that condemns GLBT people at the drop of hat. On the other hand you have certain parts of the GLBT Community who think it is not ethical for GLBT people to be Catholic. ‘ The recent Vatican Instruction on Gay Priests was not a doctrinal statement about the moral status of homosexuality, but rather a prudential judgment about who should be admitted to seminaries. Pruden- tial judgments are by definition open to question. However, rhetorically the Vatican’ can punch, and has been known to use its elbows and the occasional low blow in the clinches. Certainly one cannot read this document and arrive at any other conclu- sion than it is a mean spirited, and a homo- phobic document. . V ' A recent article by a syndicated gay col‘- umnist pretty much sums up the. other side of this coin. We should out any clerics we can, that way we will force them to support gay rights or be seen as hypocrites. In strik- ing out at the Vatican, I think it is important to not strike out at GLBT Catholics in the process. The syndicated columnist engaged IE" it it i5! Send your letters to: editor@mountainpridemedia.org in what borders on an irrational attack on gay priests. Such an attack also denies the ability of GLBT Catholics to trust their own moral experience when it comes to assent- ing or dissenting as a matter of conscience on current Church's positions. My issue is not with the syndicated columnist. I think he has every right to express his opinion in an uncensored man- ner, rather my concern is with balance. None of the Gay Media that ran this syndi- cated journalist column made room for a GLBT Catholic response in their letters to the editor, however, other members of the gay media and straight media did print our response. My point is not to attack the syn- dicated colunmist who wrote the article, but to raise the issue of fairness and bal- ance in the Gay Media when dealing with the issue GLBT Catholics. Many GLBT Catholics stay in the Church because of their deep love for their parish communities, and do chal- lenge homophobia in the Church through debate. The debate is taking place, and gay Catholics betray no disloyalty or irnpiety to either the Church or the GLBT Community by participating and remaining within the Church. - JOE MURRAY US Convener Rainbow Sash Movement . Actively Inspired Thank you for printing my little blurb in this past month s issue about OITM s un- intentional inspiration that booted me into helping with the new LGBTQ project in Windham County. After reading it in print I realized that those who have worked very hard at the AIDS project may be of- WlTT'S E D BY LEAH WHTENBERG I SCREAM YOU SCREAM WE ALL SCREAM... L 4;) wrffihlfiéflb ‘f//prose Global Warning fended by my remarks. I would like to give my apologies to those who may have thought that I was commenting on the AIDS project directly. I was merely show- ing my disappointment in the lack of com- munity events in our area. ADRIENNE DEGUEVARA Westminster No to Constitutional Amendment I've heard about thedebate of people try- ing to make people separated from one another by putting in a constitutional amendment. To me this sounds like seg- regation all over again. We should treat everyone equal. As a transsexual female in the very beginning process of transitioning from male to female, I feel we are all equal. Let's have freedom for everyone. We are all equal, let’s keep it that way. By amending the constitution we are promoting hatred and bigotry. Let’s stop that. BRITTNAY JAMES Piermont, NH Lessons from Canadian Health Care I would like to highlight a central element of the health care debate that seems to be getting almost no notice—how to address the wildly inefficient administrative struc- ture of the current system. My family and I had the good fortune to live in the Canadian province of New Brunswick for five years in the 19705. Dur- ing that time, my daughter was born, my son had an eye operation and both my wife and I had outpatient hospital procedures. All of this was in addition to the normal run of health care needs —shots, eye ex- ams, flus and grippes — of a young family. For all of this, we filled out exactly one (count ‘em, ONE) insurance form. After that initial form, we were issued wallet cards (a new one arrived automatically for my daughter when she was born) which we showed whenever we went to a doctor, a pharmacy or a hospital. Doctors’ offices usually had just one nonmedical employee for reception and paperwork duties be- cause they had only one insurance provider and one set of coverage rules to manage, and no problems billing uninsured patients. One continues to hear near-hysterical stories of waiting lists for care in Canada, but is this so different from our own system? I was recently referred to a spe- cialist by Central Vermont Hospital and found that the first available appointment was three months away. In any case, no one is claiming that Canada or any of the other developed countries’ health care systems are not facing the same cost and demographic pressures we are: the twin challenges of an aging population and ever-escalating medical costs. But this is a largely separate question_from the (very costly) inefficiency of how our system is administered. I find it hard to understand how this or Out in the Mountains, PO Box 1122 Burlington, VT 05402‘ issue has received so little attention. It seems obvious on its face that a single-pay- er, universal coverage system with a single set of coverage and rules, whether admin- istered by government or a private cont.rac- tor, would be vastly simpler and more ef- ficient. It would benefit medical providers by greatly simplifying their business opera- tions. It. would benefit small businesses and encourage entrepreneurship by remov- ‘ ing the huge burden of providing——or refus- ing to provide——rnedical benefits. It would benefit large businesses by removing the burden of employee medical insurance and/or high job turnover and strikes. Ditto for municipal and state govemments. And finally, it would benefit the general public by doing away with the whole idea of being uninsured, as is already the case in every other developed nation in the world. ANDREW JACKSON Montpelier King was Advocate for All As a gay man, I am also saddened by the passing of Coretta Scott King because in addition to being a tireless, outspoken symbol of the civil rights movement and a human rights advocate, this great lady spoke out about the struggles of gays and lesbians. She recognized that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong. On March 30, 1998 she said, “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial jus- tice. But I hasten to remind them that Mar- tin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream t.o make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.” ’ WILLIAM C. STOSINE Iowa City, Iowa C O R R E C T I O N Perhaps it was the influence of the “way- back machine,” but we managed to return Nat Michael to a former identity in our front page teasers last. issue. She’s the one with the “Butch Bathroom Blues.” We re- gret the error. ‘I NOTE TO READERS: As luck would have it, right on deadline we learned of the change of the Gender Identi- ty Bill (H.478) to a new number and name: H.865 or “An Act Relating to Nondiscrimi- nation.” We also received the GREAT news that the newly-named bill has moved onto the House floor where it could be voted on by the time you see this paper. We've done‘ our best to make the necessary changes in the paper to avoid any confusion.