Out in the Mountains

   
 

Sq U i   (from preceding page)

"Certainly it's changed more in Burl-
ington, a more urban area, with the Univer-
sity and a lot higher percentage of the
people being new to the area. But there are
other communities, like Brattleboro, in

or shoveling manure or working in ‘the
sugarbush with someone — they know me
from that perspective, and when they have
to deal with the fact that I am also a gay
man, it automatically changes the percep-
tion that they had built up over the
years of the stereotyped presenta-

approach that's been taken in urban areas
and just try to transpose them onto the
system here in Vermont.

"Clearly my first allegiance has tobe to
the constituents that elected me, but that
doesn't mean that I can't be true to
myself and the community that I

tion of gay men.

"I think people feel threatened
by non-traditional things, especially
relationships. Vermont particularly
was a state of homogenous commu-
nities. I mean, everybody was the
same. They all had names like Smith
and Clark and Franklin and Squires,
and they were all white, and they all
worked with the same type of or-

"There are more and more of us
who are willing to do it - to run for
office and to be open about it. It

really smashes people ‘s stereo-

types about who we are. "

come from. It just means that at
times I'll have to work on a bridge
when I'd rather be getting funding
for the Health Department.
"People really ought to begin
to develop relationships with their
legislators from their districts on a
variety of issues, not just the issues
that directly relate to the fact that
we're gay men or lesbians. If they're

ganizations, like the Grange, the
Volunteer Fire Department, etc.

They had their farms. Though every town
was different, they had pretty much the
same type of community. They had the
same networking going on in those com-
munities, the same social structures — and
that was for two hundred years. You don't
change that type of situation in the fifteen or
twenty years that gay people have been
open and active in Vermont, and it's only
been a small portion of those fifteen to
twenty years when we've been effective or
been visible in terms of being involved in
community things rather than just being
visible because we had gay bars in a couple
of towns in the state.

The Kid's Alright

Pete Townshend, the energetic ex-guitarist of the rock band

which it's really amazing what's happened.
That area has been fairly open and accept-
ing of difference. There are two function-
ing gay bars in Brattleboro — the town has
11,000people. Really, thingsarechan ' g,
but it's not going to happen overnigh
What will be exciting for me to try to
do is to take some of the actual legal
changes that have been attempted in places
like San Francisco and New York in terms
of partnerships or insurance benefits and
find ways to help allow those changes to
occur in Vermont. There may be other ways
to do it. We have to be careful not to just
take the language of the legislation or the

involved with other issues with

their legislators and say, ‘I want you
to vote for the Gay Rights Bill,‘ there's
going to be a lot better chance that the type
of communication is going to occur to let
that legislator vote for that bill. Legislators
need to be supported as well as threatened
when itcomes to those types of bills. It's not
easy for someone who's never dealt with
that kind of issue to sit in Montpelier and
vote for itknowing that they are going to go
back to Coventry or Halifax or Searsburg
and people in that community are going to
say, 'What the fuck are you voting for those
queers for? Have you lost your marbles up
there in Montpelier? Have you been away
from home too long?"'

Announcing

the formation of a ten-week

The Who, recently revealed that he "had a gay life, and understood

what gay sex was about." The statement comes from a book of
interviews gathered together by the music critic Timothy White
in his book Rock Lives: Profiles and Interviews.

Townsend referred to one song in particular, "Rough Boys"
from his solo album "Empty Glass," as "a cotning out" song. "It
was a real aknowledgement of the fact that I'd been surrounded by
people that I really adored — and was actually sexually attracted
to — who were men."

Townsend credits his success among a female audience in
part to his ability to understand "how it feels to be a woman" along
with "being honest about the fact thatl understand how gay people
feel, and I identify." The musician currently lives with his wife
Karen Astley and their three children.

Townsend joins the ever-growing list of artists and musicians
who are feeling more comfortable discussing their sexuality in the
public forum. Our ongoing question remains, "Who's next?"

therapy group for the

Partners of Adults Who
Were Sexually Abused
as Children/Teenagers

For more information. contact:

Hollie I-Iurewltz. MACP. CCMHC
862-6758

Michael Watson, Ph.D., CCMHC
658-6 1 2 1

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