May 1986 - page 9

What the Vermont ERA amendment could mean

frompage2
State's ERA prohibited that state from
refusing them a marriage license. The
Washington Supreme Court rejected
their claim, saying that'the people of
the state did not intend, in ratifying
the state ERA, to guarantee gay rights
in addition to prohibiting traditionally
understood gender discrimination. The
Court looked to the letters to the editor
in the Seattle newspapers during the
referendum period in order to discover
what the popular understanding of the
meaning of the ERA was, in addition
to looking at the legislature's intent.

So why do I think the Vermont

ERA arguably prohibits sexual
orientation discrimination? First,
sexual orientation discrimination,

despite what courts have done so far,
i_s_ discrimination based upon a person's
gender. Rules which say that a man
only can be sexual with a woman are
rules which are based on the man's
biological gender. It is because the
person was born male that the person
must love only women. Similarly, rules
restricting women's sexual and
affectionate behavior to interaction
with males are rules based upon the
fact of women's biological gender.
These rules are part of the package
of rules and social mores which
Datriarchy imposes to define gender.

Sinister Wisdom

fi'ompage8

brought out in 1°82 in Nice Jewish
Girls: A Lesbian Anthology, edited by
Evelyn Torton Beck. Melanie sees Nice
Jewish Girls as primarily a eoming—out
of Jewish women in the lesbian
community and of lesbians in the
Jewish community. Without it, "The
Tribe of Dina" would not exist, she
said; however, the new anthology is not
a repeat, not another coming-out, but a
broader examination of Jewish women's
experience in many, if not all, of its
manifestations.

The anthology is international in
scope, including work by Jewish women
originally from Argentina, lsiael,
Poland, Hungary, China, Austria, as
well as the United States, The editors
point out in the introduction that there
are gaps in the scope, and one gap they
particularly regret is the one caused by
the lack of work by Jewish women
from the Soviet Union.

There is an entire section devoted
to Israeli women, titled "K01 Haisha:
Ilsjraeli Women Speak.‘ Other sections of
I C anthology are "My Ancestors

You can have a future in the exciting
world of lesbian/gay journalism as an Out
in the Mountains staffer!

Intrigued?

_ Find out more at our next staff meet-
mg, Friday .M8y 2 7:30 pm at the Peace’
and Justice L}-titer. Burlington.

Defining maleness and femaleness as
different, and assigning bipolar
characteristics to males and females,
are necessary steps in creating gender
hierarchy. Patriarchy defines "Woman"
as a being who is available for male
use.. For a woman to refuse to be
available makes her not a woman by
definition; for~her to insist she is a
woman and not available to man is
revolutionary. The mere existence of a
-lesbian is evidence of patriarchy‘s lies
about gender. Patriarchy‘s response is
to outlaw such existence.

Gay men also threaten patriarchy’s
definitions of gender. Men are
supposed to be those who use women;
they are not supposed to use each other
nor are they supposed to be like
women. Gay men refute patriarchy’s
opposition of maleness and femaleness.
The existence of gay men does not,
however, present patriarchy with as
serious rebellion as does the existence
of lesbians. Lesbians deny men access
to them; gay men by their existence do
not deny any other man access to any
women.

Patriarchy's system of rules against
the existence of homosexuality is called
heterosexism. The neurotic aversion to
homosexuals which patriarchy teaches is
homophobia. As Adrienne Rich pointed
out almost a decade ago, we live in a

flourishes in Vt.

Speak," "The Women of Our Family," "I
Am the Present Generation,” and "Lot's
Wife Revisited." The final section,
"Bread and Roses," contains work on
the radical activism of Jewish women,
including a handbook written by the
editors with Bernice Mennis titled, ‘In
Gerangl/In Struggle: A Handbook for
Recognizing and Resisting
Anti-Semitism and for Building Jewish
Identiy and Pride.” This workbook grew
out of workshops led by the authors,
and although they say in the opening
paragraph that "it is meant not to be
read and absorbed, but used and
discussed," I found it enlightening and
thought-provoking to read; the questions
and exercises they posed compelled me
to examine more specifically the ways
in which I, a gentile, perpetuate
anti-Semitism, and I plan to refer to
the workbook again -- individually and
with other women -- in order to make
recognizing and resisting anti—Semitism
a more conscious part of my life.

The next issue of Sinister Wisdom
(#31) will have a special focus on sex,
sexuality and fiction; manuscripts and
art are due by June 1986. The issue
after that (#32) will focus on illness,
healing, death and mourning;
manuscripts and art are due by
September 1986.

For subscriptions ($15),
Sinister Wisdom, PO. Box
Montpelier, VT 05602.

write
I308,

culture of "Compulsory Heterosexuality‘.
Heterosexism is an aspect of sexism,
that is, it is an aspect of the system of
rules which create patriarchal meanings
for biological gender. Rules which say
women should not serve as security
guards are part of this system of
sexism; rules which say women should
not be sexual with other woman are
part of the same system.

If Vermont's Equal Rights
Amendment will prohibit Vermont or
any political subdivision from abridging
or denying anyone equal rights because
of the sex of the individual, then I
believe we can argue that the Vermont
ERA will prohibit any government
entity from denying any of us rights
due to our sexual orientation. If I go
to a town clerk and request a marriage
license to wed a woman, I will be
turned down because I am female, and
as a female I am only allowed to
marry males. I would be granted the
license if I were male. This is
discrimination based upon the sex
(biological gender) of the individual.
Justbecause the legal system has not
yet understood how sexual orientation
discrimination is a type of sex
discrimination does not mean it is not.
Law reform happens because new
arguments are made, and courts are
persuaded to see situations in new ways
For us to take the narrow vision of
existing sex discrimination law as the
last word is to give up the struggle for
change.

In a world without sexism, there
would be no need for rules limiting
males to female partners and vice
versa. It is left for us to explain this
to the courts. It has only been since
1971 that the United States Supreme
Court has admitted that gender
discrimination offends the U>S>
Constitution at all; the federal and
state courts are not going to agree with
our attempts to expand their definition
of sex discrimination right away. We
ought to start working on it
nonetheless, under state ERA's and
under state and federal equal protection
clauses.

It is time what Adrienne Rich and
other feminist theorists have been
telling us about the place of
heterosexism in sexism was applied to
law. The first step is to write letters
to the editors of Vermont papers in
support of the Vermont ERA and in
support of barring sexual preference
discrimination as a form of sex
discrimination. Remember, letters to
the editor are part of the referendum
history and courts in the future may
look to them for our intent as to the
ERA's meaning. We need to respond to
the anti-ERA gay baiting, but in the
process we do not need to concede our
claim to ERA protection. Instead we
should ask all Vermonters to oppose all
types of sex discrimination and to
support equal rights for all of us.