Out in the Mountains

 

Gay & Lesbian Pride
_ Spoken Here !
Books, Clothing, Jewelry,
Crafts, Magazines, T-shirts,
Bumperstickers, Pins,
Support your local Gay &
Lesbian book 8: gift shop!
All proceeds bandit

the Peace & Justice Coalition

KAVAVAVA‘

Peace on Earth Store

21 Church St.

Burlington, Vermont

 

' 863-8326 65,, -

Testing the Waters

Gary Sexton

Recently, the Northeast Vermonters for
Gay and Lesbian Rights, (NEVGALR),
held a small petition drive for the cit-
izens of St. Johnsbury. The purpose of
this drive was to present evidence to
our Congressional leaders in Washing—
ton D.C., as well as President Bill Clin-
ton, that there is support in lifting the
ban on gays and lesbians in the military.
When NEVGALR set out to conduct
this drive we felt that the success would
be minimal in our response to sig-
natures. In spite of suspecting the re-
sponse may not be quite what was
hoped for, we felt that an effort was
necessary, if for no other purpose then
to let St. Johnsbury know that gays and
lesbians were here.

Traditionally St. Johnsbury, by standards
of most American cities, is a small rural
community, whose composition is ba-
sically Republican. St. Johnsbury is part
of the notoriously famous Northeast
Kingdom's conservatism. This region of
Vermont is one of the most economically
hard hit communities of New England
and people here hold on to traditional
values with a furious conservatism.

We placed the petition in two area busi-
nesses, a local health food store and a
bookshop, believing that these busi-
nesses would attract the greatest num-
ber of progressive thinkers. Also we
felt that most other business's here
would refuse to accept this petition.
The petition read as follows:

We, the undersigned residents of Ver-
mont, support President Clinton's lifting
of the ban on gays and Lesbians serving
in our military. We acknowledge that
Gays and Lesbians have been making a
valuable contribution to the United
States military since its inception. We
request that the Congress and the Joint

Chiefs of Staff work with the President
to recognize these honorable and ded-
icated citizens.

After leaving these petitions in the as-
signed areas for about a month we went
back to collect the signed copies. To our
surprise, we found that literally hun-
dreds of individuals had signed. Often
when the page was filled people were
using the blank backs of the petition to
sign. The bookshop informed us that in
the past most petition efforts that had
been conducted at their shop had met
with little success, not this one. The re-
sponse was far greater then anyone at
NEVGALR ever anticipated, and it sur-
passed all expectations.

The petitions have been photocopied and
have been sent to both Senators Leahy and
Jeffords offices, as well as the original pe-
tition going to President Clinton. The re-
sponse of this drive has served as an educa-
tional tool to us at NEVGALR. It shows
that despite the conservatism that we had
come to know surrounds the gays and les-
bians in St. Johnsbury, there is a large per-
centage of the population that is willing to
stand up and be counted as supporters of
Gay and Lesbian rights. In light of this suc-
cess one can only wonder if the gay and
lesbian community might, on occasion, be
guilty of the same negative stereotyping of
which we accuse others? V

 

100 Main Street
P.O. Box 247
Burlington, VT 05402-0247

David W. Curtis
A1TORNEY AT LAW

HOFF, AGEL, CURTIS, PACHT & CASSIDY, P.C.

802-864-4531

Animal Inn

Carol Skon
11.0.1 Box 1980 Fairfax.Vt.05454 802-524-4574

3' BOARDING
GROOMING
TRAINING
Claudia Cook

16