14 out in the mountains I MAY 2006 l MOUNTA|NPR|DEMED|A.ORG

 

  

  

Inthe

I'IllIllI1tllIIl5

IIIIIIIIITEEIIS,
THIIIIII VIII] lIll!

Last month's volunteers made.Michel
DuBois' departure a memorable one!!‘

In addition to the gourmet chocolate‘
cupcakes and the delicious chocolate cookies
the sweetness was all around. Veteran
volunteers and new ones came to last month's
stuffinggnight to bid Michel good wishes.

It was a shining example of why volunteering
means so much to usalll

Come be a part of our volunteer group.
Make some new friends and help us make
Out in the Mountains the area's trusted voice

of the LGBTQ community,

We thank the following volunteers who, in
addition to our writers’ efforts, worked on last
month's paper:

IIEIIUEBIIIE: .

Thia Artemis, Rick Bersaw, AIDS Project of
Southern Vermont, Tom Bivins & Bennett Law,
Daryl & Dennis DePaul, Patrick DiDomenico, I
Kathy Donna, Thom Fleury, Danny Gates,

Keith Goslant, Jeni Hurner, Nat Michael, Fran
Moravcsik, Fred Pond, Rick Wold

STIIFFIIIG IIIEHT:

Greg Weaver, Marie, Kate MacTavish, Jay
Schuster, Dan Berns, Tom McGlenn, Bob'Wolff,
Joe Swinyer, Dan Brink.

Dana Anderson, Joe Swinyer

COMMUNITY NEWS

 

Amber Hollibaugh

to Speak at  
R.U.1.2‘? Dinner ,

Speaker to
Address Elder
LGBT Issues

BY DONNA IVERSON

T here are lots of unpleas-
ant realities to face when
you get old, as the baby

boomer generation is about to
find out. But if you are a gay,
lesbian, bisexual or transgen-
dered elder, the cultural deck
is stacked against you in ways
you may not have imagined.

At the upcoming R.U.l.2? an-
nual dinner on May 13, Amber
Hollibaugh, senior strategist for
the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force, will be-addressing
this issue. The Task Force has
found that LGBT elders often
do not have access to adequate
health care, affordable housing,
and other social services due to
institutionalized heterosexism

For example, the oldest
and most frail LGBT elders face
a wall of intolerance if they are
admitted to a nursing home.
Homophobia among caregivers
has been well documented in
studies of nursing home condi-
tions. Faced vvith such intol-
erance, if not hostility, many
LGBT elders retreat into the
closet, reinforcing isolation.

On the federal level, the
institutionalized discrimina-
tion hits GLBT elders in their
pocketbooks and hearts. Fed-
eral programs treat sarne-sex
couples differently than mar-
ried heterosexual couples. The
Task Force notes the following:

1. Social Security pays
survivor benefits to widows
and widowers but not to
the same—sex life partner,
of someone who dies.

2. Unmarried partners
in life-long relationships
are not eligible for Social
Security spousal benefits.

3. Medicaid regulations
protect the assets and homes
of married spouses when one
enters a nursing home, but
no such protections are of-
fered same-sex partners.

4. Tax laws discriminate
against same—sex partners, cost-
ing them tens of thousands, an
possibly more than $1 million,
during the course of a lifetime.

5. Hospital visitations
rights are often denied
same-sex partners.
Compounding these prob-
lems, LGBT elders often experi-

ence social isolation and ageism '

Within the LGBT community
itself. As they often do not have
the same family support sys-
tem as heterosexual people, a
disproportionate number of
LGBT elders live alone  the
most invisible of all Ameri-
cans, the Task Force reports.
Prior to becoming senior

strategist for the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force, Hol-
libaugh served as director

of education, advocacy and
community building for SAGE
(Services and Advocacy for
GLBT Elders). For many years,
she created national HIV and
AIDS programs and was the first
director of the Lesbian AIDS
Project. In addition to her activ-
ism, she is an artist, writer and
filmmaker. The author of My
Dangerous Desz"res: A Queer
Girl Dreaming Her Way Home,
she also co~produced and di-
rected “The Heart of the Matter,‘
a documentary about women’s
sexuality and HIV risk, which

won the 1994 Sundance Festival
Freedom of Expression Award
and ran on PBS. Hollibaugh is
also a founding board member
of Queers for Economic Justice.
Hollibaugh specializes in
activating local LGBT communi-
ties to work toward economic
and social justice on all fronts.
A message of empower-

ment is what she is expected to
bring to the Burlington LGBT
community on Saturday, May
1§th, as the keynote speaker
for the R.U.1.2‘? 8th A-nnual
Queer Community Dinner to

be held at the Wyndham Hotel
in Burlington. To learn more
orregister, call R.U.1.2? at
860-7812 or visit their website
at thecenter@rul2.org. V

Donna Iverson moved to
a ‘subsidized senior housing

in Winooski three years
ago. Her car with the only
gay pride sticker in the lot,
has been vandalized twice,
most recently a rock thrown
through the window on the
driver's side. A freelance
writer and photographer and
social activist, she lives with
her Abyssinian cat, Willow.