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Out in the Mountains

Vermont Lesbians and Gay Men of Achievement

There’s that word again. Achieve-
ment. Lately it's been used to describe the
accomplishments of all kinds of people,
whether financially successful or not. The
welfare mother, for example, who raises
three children and puts herself through
night school; the incest survivor who con-
fronts her past; the alcoholic who stops
drinking. These are people who have over-
come unreasonable odds to become healthy
human beings.

What the about the old gay men and
lesbians in our state who have spent their
lives doing nothing more dramatic than
being quiet and productive citizens in
towns unwilling to know them? Aren’t
they, too, people of achievement? We, as
younger gays and lesbians, are amazed by
strength and resilience of this generation
who until a decade or two ago led entirely
invisible lives, largely isolated and alone.
We mourn that we were never allowed to
know them as strong gay men and lesbians.
These are the role models we were denied.

This is the woman who is known
around town by the name of the volunteer
organization to which she gave years of
service - to stave off loneliness after the
death of her partner.

These are the men and women who
have seized the changes of the past twenty

  

De .
I would like to respond to Deborah
Kutzko’s letter to the editor (May 1989) in
reference to my article on lesbians and
AIDS. Ms. ‘Kutzko, being the AIDS pro-
gram manager of the Vermont Department
of Health and a FNP, obviously is knowl-
edgeable about AIDS and the current issues
surrounding the disease. My background is
in biochemical and endocrinological re-
search at the University of Vermont, and
though I do not work on AIDS research, I
try to keep up with the current literature and
research in the field. The concerns that Ms.
Kutzko had with my article indicated to me
that we were coming from two different
perspectives in our interpretation of exist-
ing scientific data surrounding AIDS.

As a lesbian, I am personally interested
in seeing research being conducted on les-
bian sex and the transmission of AIDS.
From a research point of view, all the data
collected on AIDS transmission can only
theoretically be related to lesbians and is
therefore “conjecture.” This conjecture, or
theory, can only become fact when there is

years and taken measured steps out of their
closets. In a time when their straight peers 3
are settling into comfortable habits, these ‘
people are embracing some of the most
exciting changes of their lives - discovering
other like them; reading accounts of open )
4

 

debate over gay rights in Montpelier;
watching gays and lesbians speak confl-
dently Vermont ETV.

Measuring themselves against the
radical fervor of the Stonewall rioters, they
are apologetic about their past lives. They
were in the closet, they weren't gay, they
were “local”, they didn’t know other gay
people. But when the post Stonewall era
brought hints of change to their communi-
ties, they siezed opportunities to come out
in their own creative ways. They read
books. They wrote letters. And they made
new friends.

Even today, no other paper in this state
will recognize them for the people of
achievement they are - for saying no to
bitterness, for continuing to work and con-
tribute to a society that refused to see them.
Even as their straight peers are eulogizedin .
newspapers and on placques, a large part of
old gays and lesbians identities remains
forever secret Against all odds, they have
done more than survive. For this, we love
them and we honor them.

 

directly supporting data. Further, because
no studies have been done concerning les-
bian sex, I must say that we don’t fully
know how the AIDS virus is transmitted.I
might be being picky but there is some
uncertainty in the scientific data and I have
a hard time overlooking that uncertainty.
Ms. Kutzko writes that “if individual
women can think about what they do during
sex they can evaluate their own relative
risk.” I concur with this statement, butlask
Ms. Kutzko, ‘Where can lesbians find out
about the riskiness of their sexual activities
in order to evaluate their own risk?’ Iren-
erate my point about safer sex literature
having little or no relativity to lesbian sex-
I must also agree with Ms. Kutzko
when she says that “the virus does not go A
from the stomach to the blood sIIeam_’' 1“
reference to swallowing vaginal SOCICUOIIE
and that “the risk seems very, very 10W-
Well, how low is very, very low? Low (1095
not mean no risk.
Studies have shown that I€P°3l°,d y
exposure to the AIDS virus increases 0"“ A
(Continued on neiilfl‘)