page 8 - Out in the Mountains

£1'a1'S012 1'12 561“ Vie We 0’

Interview with Terjc Anderson

()2 What kind of background in
lesbian/gay organizing do you bring to
this position?

A: I've been out since high school, and
have been involved in lesbian and gay
politics and community organizing since
then. A lot of what I've done has
been electoral and lobbying work. When
I lived in Maryland, I helped found the
Baltimore Lesbian and Gay ?Democratic
Club and the Maryland Coalition for
Lesbian and Gay Concerns, and I
co-ordinated state legislative lobbying
for both of those groups.

Here in Vermont, 1 have been very
involved in Vermonters for Lesbian and
Gay Rights, Out in the Mountains, and
the efforts to get a statewide coalition
going.

I am also fairly involved on the
national level. I was vice-chair of the
lesbian/gay delegate caucus at the I984
Democratic National Convention in San
Francisco and I am on the executive
committee of the National Association
of Lesbian and Gay Democratic Clubs.

A lot of my work has been AIDS
focused. I do a lot of AIDS education
speaking appearances in front of small
groups, and I have been involved in
AIDS work in one way or another
since I982. I am currently chair of the
Health Issues committee of the National
Association of Lesbian and Gay
Democratic Clubs.

Q: You do a lot of political work
that’s not just gay oriented, don't you?

A: I certainly have never bee a one
issue person, and I believe very strongly
in building coalitions. I am Assistant
Treasurer of the Vermont Democratic
State Committee, and I worked as the
party's staff person during the 1984
campaign. —I was Vermont's
representative to the 1984 Democratic
National Platform Convention, and I
was the issues co-ordinator for the
Jesse Jackson campaign here.

I am very involved in the Rainbow
Coalition, and I have done a lot of
work. at various times, on South
Africa, Central America, community
health care, union organizing and a
number of other issues. But I always
do my political work as an openly gay
person, and I think that helps build a
lot of understanding and support from
the people I work with.

Q: What kind of issues do you see
being able to work on in the Liaison
position?

A: Potentially, just about anything
affecting lesbian and gay men's lives

can come up, but I think there are a
few obvious areas of concern. Certainly
the ERA campaign is going to be a
difficult thing for our community, and
we need to make sure that the
Governor uses her position to speak out
against the ugliness of the homophobia
coming from the anti-ERA side. We
need to look seriously at state
government's AIDS efforts, to make
sure they are doing everything possible
as well as possible. We also have to
constantly be looking at ways to end

discrimination of all kinds that we
face, and recognize that state
government can play a major role in
documenting and ending that
discrimination. And we have to be
concerned about the level of
homophobic violence that exists in
Vermont.

It is important to remember that
things are not going to happen
overnight, but it is an important first

continued, page 10

Lesbian Passover

from pageb‘

hope for ourselves in the Well of
Miriam. It is said that Miriam -— who
with her brothers led us out of Egypt

-- had a gift for finding water -- a
particularly valuable skill in the
wilderness with thousands of people in

your care. What good is freedom if all
are to die after winning it? We base
our hopes for the future not on Elijah.

though we honor him. but on the

knowledge that women like Miriam
lived and still live. leading us to the

water that sustains all life and thus
our journey towards freedom. (Raise
cup.) This cup represents the Well of
Miriam. may it always travel with us.

It has become traditional at many
seders, not necessarily feminist, to set
aside a fourth matzah, the matzah of
hope, for the Jews of the Soviet Union.
(The other three are ceremonial
indicators of the haste with which the
Israelite women left Egypt.) At our
house, we say it this way:

We set aside this matzah as a
symbol of hope for our sisters in other
lands who are oppressed and harassed.
in the Soviet Union, in Ethiopia and
all the African and Arab countries. in
Argentina and all the countries of
Central and South America. even in
Israel -- in countries where few of our
sisters. especially lesbians. have voices.
where they are counted as Jews by
their enemies and not by their brothers
in the synagogue. where they have few
rights under halacha (Jewish law) and
are forced to worry more about the
physical survival of their families.
friends and themselves than about their
rights to full expression of their beings.
We set aside this matzah especially for
our sisters who HAVE spoken out ~-
lesbians in Israel. refuseniks in the
Soviet Union. We stand with them in
their struggle until the light of freedom
shines on all of us.

After the traditional listing of the
ten plagues, which ends with ‘striking
of the first born,‘ many haggadahs ask
an important question. Arthur Waskow
put it well in his Rainbow Seder: ‘Can

the winning of freedom be bloodless?"

We remember at this point the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. which began
on the first night of Passover. 1942.
(and included women fighting and
lying alongside men). We respect and
honor those who withstood the Nazis.
fighting violence with violence. saying
to the world. We will fight back.

We remember that the American
Revolution was not bloodless. nor was
the early fight of Black Americans. or
the movement for gay rights. which
began with the Stonewall riots.

We must wonder whether women
would be further along if we used
violence. Would we be taken more
seriousl_v? What are the reasons for our
nonviolenee?

The Greenham Common women
have said they "must constantly put the
responsibility for the use of violence
back in the hands of the authorities.
and this is only possible if we
completely disown violence ourselves."
But is this Jewish? Would we have (1
state of Israel had we not fought for
it? Would we have a Jewish people left
if we did not fight for ourselves?
Should we have a Jewish state. then. if
it takes violence to defend it? Can a
people exist without violence in its
history. without violence being done to
it. without resisting violence with
violence?

The story we retell at the seder
ends with the Israelites being led to
freedom by Moses, Aaron and Miriam.
Here we must ask finally, What
freedom? Whose freedom? As Jewish
women, as lesbians, as gay men, we
know our freedom wasn’t handed to us
at Sinai or upon leaving Egypt. We
have had to struggle for it since the
days of Lilith.

The Passover seder is the perfect
time to come together as Jewish
lesbians and friends to celebrate our
victories and encourage each other in
the ongoing fight for freedom.