VER|VlONT’S NEWSPAPER for '...ESB|N\'S and GAY MEN

| Vol. 1 No. 10

MERRY CHRISTMAS
VT L1 

Election Commentary

by Tcrjc Anderson .

For lesbians and gay in Vermont, the
I986 election was a major turning point.
The narrow defeat of the proposed Equal
Rights Amendment shattered, for once and
for all, the mythology that Vermont is an
open and tolerant place and the perception
that -reactionary right—wing forces in the
state are weak. ‘

\Ve have lived through months of
unbridled homophobia, as the anti-ERA
campaign unleashed what the Vanguard Press
called "the most negative, misleading and
downright sleazy commercials, brochures and
advertisements in the history of Vermont
politics."

We've seen it all: brochures on the
"ERA/Gay/AIDS connection", radio ads
focusing on gay marriages, television
commercials depicting leather—clad men on
San Francisco’s Polk Street, vicious personal
attacks on community leaders, claims by one
anti-ERA leader to possess a “homing device"
to detect homosexuals, a daily assault of
venom in the letters to the editor, and a
host of other similarly vitriolic attacks.

Throughout it all, we stood virtually
isolated and alone. The response of most of
the pro-ERA organizations and leaders was
simply to denounce the negative direction of
the campaign and repeat the mantra that
"prevailing legal opinion says that thc ERA
would not prevent discrimination against
lesbians and gay men."

It was disappointing and painful to see
that (with the exception of N.O.W.) most of
our liberal/feminist friends sought only to
distance themselves from us, instead of
speaking out forcefully in defense of our
basic humanity. Our allies _desertcd us.

In the end, that may have been the
downfall of the ERA.

The anti-gay attacks on the ERA were
developed and perfected long before this
campaign, in ERA referenda in other states.
The "ERA/GAY/AIDS" brochure and the
television commercials, for example, were
used, virtually word for word, in the I984
Maine referendum. ‘None of the ERA
leadership should have been surprised by
their appearance here.

Rather than prepare themselves to deal
effectively with homophobia, the pro-era
forccs followed the same strategy which has
failed in so many, many states before:
b“|'Ying their heads in the sand and refusing
to_believc voters would buy the bullshit
bclng put out by the crazies. No one

Burlington: On Sunday, November 2,
1986, Vermont's statewide coalition of
lesbians and gay men met for discussion and
workshops. At the meeting the group
decided to issue the following statement
after election day. "We felt that our
statement of concerns was really about the
political process in Vermont rather than
about any particular issue or candidate, and
therefore chose to release it after the
election was over" I-loward Russell said
Wednesday upon release of the statement.
The statement, signed by l3 named
individuals and supported anonymously by
numerous others, says:

During the just—concluded political
campaign Vermont has witnessed a terrifying
display of public bigotry and hatred. The
lesbian and gay citizens of Vermont have
been the focus of public. statements,
campaign pamphlets and advertisements
suggesting we have no rights to exist and
certainly should have no rights to
nondiscrimination in employment, housing,
healthcare, insurance, privacy or family law.
Yet we are at least ten percent of Vermont's
population. We vote, work, own businesses,
land and homes, and participate actively in
our Vermont communities. Think of a job
and some of us do it, just as straight
Vermonters do. We are family members and
we form families ourselves. ln other words,
we are as varied and as much a part of
Vermont as are other Vermonters.

Sadly, when anti-E.R.A. spokespeople
spewed their hatred about us during the
campaign, pro-E.R.A. spokespeople, except for
Eleanor Smcal, didn't protest. We feel
certain that if the bigotry ’being expressed
had been against a racial minority or a
religious sect Vcrmont’s pro-E.R.A.
organizations would have been quick to
condemn such sentiments. But in this E.R.A.
campaign all we heard from the state's

seemed prepared for the final onslaught, and
no effective strategy was in place to counter
the ugliness.

As gay men and lesbians, we all too
frequently aided and abetted that strategy.
While many of us were involved in the
campaign, doing the drudge work, by and
large we bought into the larger strategy of
"stay quiet, don‘t mess this up." Those who
did speak out forcefully were snubbed and
privately censured by the ERA leadership.
For better or for worse, we accepted without

continued, page 2

 

DECEMBER l98o

DECHAEPPY NEW YEAR
Eagles Statement

pro-E.R.A. groups was "the E.R.A. has
nothing to do with sexual orientation."
Where were all the Vermonters dedicated to
individual liberty and civil rights? Why
such silence in the face of virulent
gay-baiting?

During the l960‘s, when the civil rights
movement for racial equality emerged in the
southern United States. there were many
who understood that as long as anyone is
not free, none are free. Martin Luther
King, having studied Ghandi's wisdom,
preached that so long as we are willing to
tolerate the oppression of any group then we
have sown the seeds of our own oppression.
It is strange and sad to us that many
Vermonters whom we know to have been
supporters of and involved in many earlier
struggles for ~--civil rights seem to have
forgotten so quickly how fragile freedom is,
and by their silence have shown themselves
willing to make us the expendable minority
in the political campaign for the E.R.A.

For now, apparently there are some
Vermonters who think there are good enough
reasons to deprive us,'the gay men and
lesbians of Vermont, of many of the basic
aspects of citizenship, and many other
Vermonters who don't think our lack of
rights is important enough to protest it.
Perhaps if you knew who we are it would
be harder to nod when someone says we are
dangerous or deviant or shouldn’t be allowed

to create families or parent our own.

children. You don't know who we are
because, for many of us, telling you would
mean loss of a job, an apartment, :1 child or
a friend. We know that every adult
Vcrmontcr is acquainted with someone who
is gay. Most of these samc‘Vermontcrs are
not aware of knowing a gay person. If we
are disappointed that more of you who could
safely do so did not stand up and defend
our rights during the E.R.A. campaign it is
because many of us could not defend
ourselves without risking devastating losses.
The E.R.A. campaign has reminded us,
however, that we may suffer ‘loss of what
few freedoms we have, and never gain full
civil rights, if we remain silent. Therefore,
the undersigned women and men of Vermont
come forward to say "we are all gay." We
hope you recognize some of us and hope that
our coming out will give you pause the next
time someone starts condemning us. We
truly are your family, neighbors, friends,
coworkers, and we are Vermonters. We care
enough about cveryone‘s freedom to demand
freedom for ourselves.

WONDERFUL SOLSTICE HAPPY HANNUKAH