Out in the Mountains

 

VERMONT'S NEWSPAPER FOR LESBIANS AND GAY MEN
Volume III, Number 2

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March 1988

Gays Take Lashing at Hearing--Again

The Senate Judiciary Committee held
a public hearing for S278, the bill to prevent
discrimination based on sexual or affec-
tional orientation, on Thursday, February
18 at the State House in Montpelier. Coali-
tion organizers began arriving at 5pm, al-
though the hearing was not scheduled to
begin until 7pm. By 6pm the well of the
House was over half full of supporters

wearing blue tags saying, “Yes on S278”. ‘

Nervous conversation could be heard all
around the room.

About 6:45, the buses filled with Fun-
damentalists opposed to the bill arrived.
The tension in the room was thick as this
new group searched for available seats
among the supporters.

Shortly before 7pm, sign-up sheets
were set out for those who wished to testify.
The room took on a new level of tension as
scores of people stood in line to sign their
names on the list. At 7:20, Mary Just Skin-
ner had to ask that the hearing begin and
anyone wishing to testify should proceed to
the back of the room and sign the list there.
The ground rules for the hearing were out-
lined by Ms. Skinner, chair of the Senate
Judiciary Committee. The rules were the
same as last year: two minutes per speaker,

AIDS Action

by Eileen

For four Thursdays in January the —

First Unitarian Universalist Society of
Burlington and Vermont CARES pre-
sented a series of programs on AIDS. The
presentations ranged from the social to the
medical to the political. The last program
“The Religious Response to AIDS” was
postponed and will be announced.

The first program on January 7 was
entitled “AIDS 10l—Everything You Al-
ways Wanted to Know About AIDS and
Were Afraid to Ask.” The presentation fea-
tured Barry Whitworth of the Vermont De-
partment of Health and Dr. Barbara Grant
of the University of Vermont Medical
Center.

Mr. Whitworth's facts and fiction of

 

a speaker in favor of the bill followed by a
speaker opposed, no applause, groans, or
laughter. The stage was set and the proces-
sion of speakers began

  

Bloomer preside over S278 public hearing.

AIDS transmission were chilling, but the
essence of Whitworth’s message was
heartening: No one who does not have the
virus now need ever contract it, if they only
engage in safe sexual practices (or of
course no sexual activity) and take precau-
tions when handling blood. Barbara Grant
demonstrated how the HIV virus gets into
the body’s cells.

The second program featured Terje
Anderson, of Vt.C.A.R.E.S., and Marilyn
Richards of the Vermont Department of
Health. Anderson emphasized that AIDS
does not focus on risk groups, but on risky
practices. He then went on to discuss those
practices in specific detail. Using the
pamphlet entitled “Safe Sex,” Anderson
discussed the different sexual practices

Flossie Robillard, a committee mem-
ber, was unable to attend because she was
ill. Will Hunter was charged with keeping
time for the speakers. He and the other
committee members settled in for a long
evening. There were 215 people signed up
to testify, 85 for and 120 against.

The testimony against the bill was
predictable. Most of the people testifying
against the bill carried their bibles to the
stand with them. This.year, however, less of
the opposition actually quoted repetitive
bible passages. The opposition came from
a few areas--—Cabot, St.Albans, Middle-
bury/Comwall, and Marshfield. Many
testified that they hadn’t heard of this
public hearing until the night before on a
Christian radio program.

Many called gays depraved, predators,
likened us to rapists, and murderers. They
testified that they didn't want to be forced
to rent, or hire a lesbian or gay man. “We do
not judge you, but that which you do,” one
woman exclaimed. Many told the commit-
tee that they knew for a fact that homosexu-
als choose their lifestyle and therefore they
should notbegranted any special privileges
for making that choice.

(Continued on page 9)

for Life Series Draws Crowds

considered safe, risky, and dangerous. He
did not entirely agree with the pamphlet.
For example, Anderson disputes that wet
kissing is at all risky. Although the HIV
virus is found in the saliva of some of those
with AIDS, its concentration is .0001 of the
concentration in infected blood or semen.
Further, he argues, if the virus could be
transmitted through saliva, we would see
many more cases of AIDS, spread through
sneezing, coughing, etc. He added that no
one engaging ONLY in oral sex has gotten
the AIDS virus.

Anderson then demonstrated the
properuse of condoms. Although condoms
are not 100% safe in preventing AIDS '( or

other diseases or pregnanfty, for that mat-
(Co mued on page 4)