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Out in the Mountains

 

Russell Reviews Campaign

by Deb Lashman

While he was disappointed and cer-
tainly hoping to make it into the top six
from Chittenden County, Howard Russell
felt very positive about his race for one of
the seats in the Vermont State Senate. ''I
knew it would be a tough race because of
the number of incumbents and because I
had never run before, and in fact, all of the
winners had the advantage of being incum-
bents or having prior experience running.
The factl came so close shows the county
is very ready for an openly gay candidate."

Russell was particularly encouraged
that he came in first in his home town of
Hinesburg. He described it as a real "com-
ing home", saying that while the people in
his birthplace certainly knew he was gay
before he started campaigning, it was never
something he had pushed before. He felt
that part of his good showing was due to the

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fact that he was born and grew up here in
Vermont and was therefore harder to dis-
miss as just "the gay candidate".

Despite initial fears-and nervousness,
Russell said he was not gay-baited at all
during the campaign. "I really got out there,
going door-to-door, standing in front of
supermarkets and at the side of the road,
and the reaction was very positive."

Russell claimed that he leamed several
lessons from the experience. An important
one was that openly gay candidates can run
andwin. One of the mostessential factorsin
running as a gay, lesbian, or bisexual can-
didate, Russell pointed out, is that one's
sexuality be acknowledged as positive and
as something which brings with it perspec-
tive and diversity.

Russell perceives lesbian/gay/bisex-
ual voting power to be on a different level
now than it was before this campaign. He

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Cafe Torter Review

also feels that support for the civil rights bill
is much stronger than ever before and that
people are finally understanding that we
have had it with the way things are. "We
have been much too patient," Russell
stated. "It's time our issues were attended
to, or there will be political fallout".

While he doesn't know yet if he will
give it another try, Russell came away from
his campaign feeling encouraged about the
future of openly lesbian/gay/ bisexual can-
didates in Vermont. He also said he would
love to talk to other people who are thinking
about it. As he now knows from experi-
ence, when you are open and out there in a
positive way, many of the fears turn out to
be a smokescreen, and winning the race is
not nearly as impossible as some people
would have you believe.

Tearls
135’ Tearf Street
Q/3ur[in‘qton, ‘Vermont

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