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Volume V, Number 2

 in the Mountains

Wt/ERMONT'S NEWSPAPER FOR LESBIANS, GAY MEN, AND BISEXUALS

  

April/May 1 990

Hate Crimes Bill Wins in the House

After a stirring speech by Rep. Francis
Brooks (D-Montpelier) and a surprising
change of heart by Rep. John Murphy (D-
Ludlow), Hate-Crimes bill H. 504 passed
the Vermont House of Representatives on
March 23. This decision came just weeks
after the U.S. Senate passed the Hate
Crimes Statistic Act and issued defeat to
notorious gay-rights opponent Jesse
Helms.

H. 504 states that “it is the right of
every person regardless of race, color, reli-
gion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age,
handicap, or sexual orientation to be secure
and protected from intimidation and physi-
cal harm caused by the wrongful activities
of individuals and groups.” The bill passed
by a wide margin of 80-51.

Some members of the House, includ-
ing Rep. Murphy, had initially misper-
ceived the H. 504 to be something of a Gay
Rights bill in disguise. Only a few days
separated his remarks of “You’re doing all
this for the lizzies and the queers” and “I
have searched my soul and said I guess I’ve
been wrong.” Though theories abound,
there is yet no firm explanation for
Murphy's change of heart. In the past,

Murphy has been the most vocal opponent
of any legislation seeking to protect or
enhance the rights of gays and lesbians.

In a moving testimony, Rep. Brooks
described to the house what it was like to be
black in Vermont, which has one of the
lowest percentages of blacks in the nation.
“I’m reminded of a spiritual thatl learned
as a little child," Brooks recalled, "with
these simple words: ‘Sometimes I feel like
a motherless child, a long ways from
home.’ I have called Vermont my home and
never want to feel as though I am a long
ways from home.”

Brooks also recounted the time he sent
a photograph of the House members home
to his family: “As a joke I wrote in the letter
to them, ‘See if you can pick me out.’ Even
though I said it as a joke, there no doubt was
sortie truth to the feeling that I conveyed."

Lobbying efforts from the Attorney
General’s office and the Human Rights
Commission contributed to the bill’s fi-
nally being approved. Keith Goslant of the
Statewide Coalition for lesbians and Gay
Men maintained contact with the Human
Rights Commission to insure that Ver-
mont’s gay and lesbian community was

being fairly represented by the bill. _

Opponents to the bill claimed that it
granted special privileges to groups such as
lesbians and gay men. In their battle against
the bill, the group also protested that H. 504
had been hidden away without allowing
those opposed a chance to testify. In fact,
committee hearings had been reopened so
that the bill’ s opponents could register their
complaints. The Ad Hoc Committee
against H. 504 never appeared to take the
stand, though their allegations continued.

One specific opponent of the bill, Rep.
Mangan of Woodstock, followed his nega-
tive vote by saying “It was not my intent to
vote against the bill in its entirety, but at the
request of many of my constituents, I could
not vote in favor of the sexual orientation
portion contained in the bill.” Such remarks
ironically serve to emphasize the need for
legislation such as H. 504 to protect the
rights of all citizens under the law.

Readers can write to OITM to request
copies of the official roll call vote for H.
504. Having passed the House, the Hate-
Crimes bill is currently under discussion in
the Senate.

After Acacia: An Interview with Winston Brathwaite

Perhaps by now, for many of us, the
name Winston Brathwaite is very familiar,
given the wide media coverage his story of
discrimination has prompted, from the
front page headline in the Burlington Free
Press to a WRUV News Forum devoted to
the issue of homophobia and even to the

' Boston Globe. Certainly, coming out as a

first-year student at the University of Ver-
mont is difficult enough without the public-
ity Winston has endured, but it has become
part of his determination to see that justice
is done.

It all "started in the fall semester when
Winston came to campus. “Being new, I
decided to try to socialize by going to frat
parties and meeting people,". Winston re-
called. “In this process, I got a bid to pledge

to Acacia. This was something I could get
a shot at for the hell of it.” Winston was at-
tracted by what Acacia stood for: independ-
ence, God, and individualism. Throughout
the six week pledge process, he was told
that he was their number one pledge and
that he could be an officer right away. The
only problem the Acacia brothers per-
ceived was that Winston was not close
enough to the other brothers.

“I did that purposefully,” Winston
said, “because with my being gay, they
might have felt I was trying to seduce them,
so I held back.” During Hell Week, he was
told to meet with each brother for a half
hour. It was at this time that he came out. “If
I was going to live with them, I wanted
them to know it about me,” he said.

The Acacia brothers‘ attitude toward
him changed drastically. They held several
meetings on the issue which Winston was
not allowed to attend. In effect, they gave
him no choice on the matter. He was out. "

“Since I wasn’t allowed to say any-
thing, I wasn’t going to take (their decision)
lying down," said Winston. He wrote a
letter to Acacia that expressed his feelings
about their decision: that they were too
ignorant to understand him and that he was
upset and angry over their hypocrisy about
his status as a pledge - from being number
one to outcast.

The brothers read the letter at a meet-
ing and subsequently took it to the office of
Greek Affairs as damage control (or, as
(continued on page 10)