June 1993

Volume VIII, Number 4

Bur|ington’s
New Mayor

(Continued from last issue: OITM in-
terviews incoming Burlington Mayor
Peter Browne/I)

Walter I. Zeichner

OITM: How do you see the role of the
Mayor’s office in relation to the gay and
lesbian community? What would you like

your relationship to be?

Brownellz I never have sat down and pic-
tured a specific program other than the
general program of equal opportunity for
everyone; not to start a new office, a new
program, a new plan that isn’t existing
now, just to insure that everyone’s aware
that not only does the city feel an obliga-
tion to not discriminate for any reason, but
thatl certainly don’t personally either. That
1t’s not something the city is doing because
that’s the law, because it’s the right thing
to do. In terms of starting a new city office
I hadn’t given any thought to doing any-

1 thing other than to see that we are at least
A living up to our legal obligations-, but hope-

fully we can develop the skills we need to
communicate to people who are not as tol-
erant as they ought to be, to recognize that
they have a responsibility beyond just the
observance of the law, but to recognize that
rt’s the right thing to do.

OITM: What role do you think homo-
phobia plays in the whole domestic part-

, ners controversy?

I

 

Brownell: Certainly there are people who
are opposed to that issue because they are
homophobic...but there are just as many
P¢0ple, who I talked with anyway, who felt
that providing insurance to domestic part-
ners of same sex couples was ok, it was the

Opposite sex couples that irritated them. If ~

PVC got to get married to get these rights
how come these people just don’t have to?
That was one of those issues where there
were things to dislike for a variety of rea-
Sons for a variety of different people.
Continued on page 8

The March on Washington:

 

. _ fun .1. is

Waiting for a Simple Matter of Justice

Paul E. Olsen

Waiting at the airport. Waiting for the
subway. Waiting to cross the street.
Waiting to shop at Lambda Rising
Bookstore. Waiting to eat and drink.
Waiting to see the Vietnam Memori-
al. Waiting for Phil Donahue, Jesse
Jackson and RuPaul. Waiting to
march. Waiting for our rights.

While the 1993 March on Washington
has come and gone memories of the
weekend and it’s impact will last a life-
time. Waking up the day of the March, I
experienced both the childlike excite-
ment of Christmas morning and the anx-
iety of the first day of school‘. Shared
feelings of solidarity, affirrnation, and
empowerment were a result of being sur-
rounded by gay and lesbian brothers and
sisters and supporters on the subway, in
restaurants, in Dupont Circle, in the
streets, at the clubs, and during the
March itself.

Photo by Paul E. Olsen V

While people of color, older Americans,
women, and most recently the disabled
have been insured protection under the
law, lesbian and gay Americans are still
waiting for civil rights protections. Re-
membering that Vermont is one of only
eight states to afford civil rights pro-
tection on the basis of sexual orientation,
I left Washington thinking of what we
can do ‘(other than wait) to expedite the
extension of civil rights protections to
lesbian and gay Americans. Here's a list
of my “top ten” suggestions:

1) Become and remain informed about
issues affecting the gayllesbianl
bisexual (g/lfb) communities (i.e. the
military ban, adoption issues, em-
ployment discrimination, domestic
partner legislation).

2) Regularly read Out in the Mountains
and one of the national gay and les-
bian news magazines.

Continued on page 14