I i l Volume IV, Number 7 VEFiMONT'S NEWSPAPER FOFi LESBIANS AND Q MEN 1 October 1 989 » by Alyx Lyons Suppose you have a partner, whom you love and share a commitment with. And just suppose that you have been in this I relationship for five, maybe ten, years. You . both may consider yourselves to be a ’ couple, but no governing body will recog- U nize such a union. Or suppose that you are single, yet have many close friends that you consider to be your “family”. They are friends with whom you share your joy, grief, happiness and sadness. Now just suppose that the unthinkable occurs: an accident or illness incapacitates you. You are unable to make decisions regarding your health and well-being. Who then, has the legal right to make those decisions for you? Even though you may have wished for your close friend or your partner to make those decisions, they will notbe able to. The power to make decisions concerning your health will fall to the near- est blood relative, such as a parent or sib- Have you ever been interested in the field of publishing? Do you love hacking apart stories with your little red pencil? Are you an avid photographer that would like to see your pictures of lesbian/gay events splashed across the front page of a newspa- ' Per? Do you want to become one of George Bush’s “thousand points of light"? Whether any of these questions apply loyou or not, we on the OITM staff are in tlire need of new people. New faces, fresh Ideas and quick typing fingers are neces- Sary for OITM to remain alive. We are also making a special appeal to all the men in the community. For the past 2Y%ars or so women have greatly outnum- bered the men in OITM. We want to ensure “lift our paper doesn’t take on a women onented slant to the exclusion of gay men. This past summer OITM acquired an °ffiCe so our meetings can now be planned much further in advance. Hopefully, with WT new space and by publishing our meet- a L ,_., j ; Maintaining Our Rights to Health Care ling. The people that you may love and trust the most may be prevented from being involved in any discussions about your needs and/or wishes. Such a scenario happened in Minne- sota in several years ago. Sharon Kowal- ski’s car was hit by a drunken driver, leav- ing her unable to provide for herself and make important decisions. Her long-time partner, Karen Thompson, wanted to be in- volved in helping to decide what was best for Sharon and to be an active participant in Sharon’s rehabilitation. But Sharon’s fa- ther was granted legal guardianship and Karen was denied total access to Sharon. Thereby denying Sharon the right to have the love and support of her partner. Their story does have a bittersweet ending. After many years of legal battle and time lost in Sharon’s rehabilitation, Karen was re- cently allowed visitation rights. Could all the legal and emotional en- tanglement have been avoided? Is there a law that would protect the rights of indi- ing times far in advance you will be able to join us. We have a shopping list of vacancies that need filling, but for the most part we need people in every area of production. 1) We are looking for a coordinator for OITM- possibly a part-time paying posi- tion. To coordinate meeting times, office duties and staff departments. 2) Joumalists/writers are needed. You don’t have to live in the Burlington arearto write for OITM. We are always looking for fresh ideas front around the state. Send us your name and phone # if you can’t make it to a meeting and we’ll keep in touch with you for story ideas. We need copy in all areas current events articles, politics, les- bian/gay health (physical, mental, etc.), commentary, and reviews. 3) Copy editors/typists- it requires no special skills to be an editor all you have to doiscome to the editing meetings. We need typists who have an AT&T or IBM compat- viduals in same-sex relationships in the state of Vermont, if there were to be an incapacitating illness or accident? Fortu- nately, the answer is yes, and it is called Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (DPA/HC). A DPA/HC is a legal document that allows you to appoint someone of your choice (called the “agent”) to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make those decisions for yourself, for whatever reason. It covers all health care situations. The document can contain spe- cific or general instructions for many dif- ferent circumstances. Obviously, the “agent” should be someone you know and trust, someone who understands your be- liefs and values. Forms and informational booklets are available from the Vermont Ethics Net- ,work. Forms can also be obtained from Area Agencies on Aging, town clerks of- fices, hospitals, and home health agencies. (Continued on page 3) Attention: Volunteers Needed for OITM ible pc or access to one and know either WordPerfect or Wordstar word process- ing. Come to the editing meetings to pick up copy to type. 4) Mail/Ca1endar- we need people to pick up the mail at ourPO Box and organize the calendar events for the layout staff. 5) Advertising- chase down old delin- quent accounts, drum up new accounts and keep the layout staff updated everymonth. Advertising revenue provides the bulk of our funds to pay our printing and mailing costs. You don’t have to live in the Burling- ton area to do this job either, in fact ideally we would like several advertising groups in different areas of the state to bring in more advertising dollars. Are you interested? Call either 865-9759 or 860-1922 eve- nings. 6) Layoutstaff- be the anchor leg of the OITM pre-printing relay! Our layout staff is completely burned out! We need people ( Continued on page 3)