special events

27 Ground Hog Day
47 Unitarian/Universalist Society AIDS Series: "Religious Re-
sponse to AIDS." 7:30pm, see Resources for adress.

l 2- l4V The film “Maurice” will be shown nightly at 7pm (ad-
ditional 9pm showing on 2/12 and 2/13) at the Catamount Arts
Center, 60 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury. For more information, call

 

___;:

February 1988

organizational meetings
67 integrity - Discovering Integrity National
Burlington Peace Coalition Board Meeting. 7pm. P&J Center, see Ver-
mont area Resources.

l0VU.U.L.G.C. 6:30pm. UULGC President, Chas Grindel
speaking.(see resources)

748-2600.

1 3V Split Britches, a Women's theater company
presents “Beauty and the Beast." City Hall, Burlington. 8pm.

Sponsored by Burlington Women's Council, Bad Girls Produc-

tions, and Gal.

l4V Valentines Day
15V President's Day

Mug!’

sources)

15 V OITM Content and Editing Meeting, 6:30pm P&J Center (see re-

l 6V OITM Typing. 5:30pm
20 V Integrity - “Revisiting the March on Washington" (see resources)
22 V OITM General Meeting. 6:30pm. P&J Center (see resources)

A’ 24V UULGC (see resources)
V Lesbian & Gay Statewide Coalition Meeting. 10:30am So. Royal-

ton HOUSE.

23V “Leap Year Dance" at Pearls. Sponsored by GLBA. 9pm —

closing. $2.00 suggested donation.
3/ l V Town Meeting Day.

Vvermont Presidential Primary

Lesbian Parenting frompage 13

ist bus driver, getting a migraine headache
instead of injecting her black voice into the
“smug whiteness” of a women’s studies
class.

She writes, “what I remember most is
that we were not just like all the other
farnilies...but we did not have to be just like
all the rest in order to be valid. We were an
interracial Lesbian family with radical
parents in the most conservative borrough
of New York City. Exploring the meaning
of those differences kept us all stretching
and learning, and we used that exploration
to get us from Friday to Thursday, from
toothache through homework, to who was
going to babysit when we both worked late
and did Frances go to PTA meetings.”

The editors, Sandra Pollack and ‘

Jeanne Vaughn, have done a good job pull-
ing the stories into a framework big enough
to hold them all, yet still give them a shape
and structure. The stories overlap and
common problems emerge but there is no
sense of tedious repetition. What emerges
instead are themes: unique family configu-
rations, struggles with children, with fami-
lies, the redemptive power of small com-
mumttes.

I was struck by the breadth of
experience these women have and the
freshness of their voices. Pollack and
Vaughn have drawn from real life experi-

ences, tictionalized accounts, and even
poetry to create their portrait of lesbian
motherhood.

They carefully avoid presenting
any one view as correct, and indeed, pres-
ent seemingly contradictory viewpoints
and perspectives. Women who have cho-
sen not to be mothers, and women who are
not positive about their experience as les-
bian mothers explain themselves.

The editors explain their intention
with a quote from Audre Lorder, “...both
Beth and Jonathan need to know what they
can share, and what they cannot, how they
are joined, and how they are not. And we,
as grown women and lesbians coming more
and more into our power, need to learn that
difference does not have to be threatening.”
Pollack and Vaughn write, “we need to
separate romanticism from reality, fact
from myth, and to do this we must be able
to hear ourselves and one another.”

Of the title for the book, they say,
“...we wanted one that would reflect the
intricacies of the lesbian family...that
would express, as Robyn Roberts says, how
complicated...the theories and politics can
be when they mix with matters of the
heart.”

This they have done, and it is a
wonderful book for all to read, gay and
straight, mother and non mother alike.

fliutfi and Tam

  frompage9

we take shelter from the winter winds.
OITM lets us know that there are gays and
lesbians beyond our discrete circles of
friendship, people in our own community
thinking about and working on the prob-
lems that persist in our society despite all
our efforts.

I would like to offer a loud round of
applause for the editors and the other vol-
unteers who have worked so hard to create
and maintain this vital service. Three
cheers for OITM and its wonderful staff!

15