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Marching in Our Own Backyardfi

Rachel Lurie

Saturday, June 26th,
Burlington. Pride Day.

Vermonters love their privacy. If there are
any characteristics we share, at least in our
common mythology, it’s our desire to lead
quiet lives and be left alone. Winding dirt
roads lead to our individual homes, stamped
with our uniqueness, where only our chosen
friends and family ever see the are we hang
or the design of our flower beds.

That’s the theory anyway, much belied by
how how many of us live——either in crowd-
ed Chittenden county or shut in by the gos-
sip and cold stares of our neighbors. To
paraphrase Audre Lorde, our privacy, like
our silence, will not protect us. After the
hype —— and excitement — of the March on
Washington, it’s the Year of the Queer, and
it’s time to bring that pride home.

Saturday, June 26th,
Burlington. Be there.

Gay and Lesbian Vermonters are still reel-
ing from the disasterous results of the may-
oral race in Burlington, symbolic of much
more than a taxpayers revolt. It wasn’t just
the Domestic Partners Benefits package up
there on the town meeting block, it was the
notion of our right to exist. The vitriolic
sideshow we witnessed at the City Council
meetings was chilling enough—the fact
that the right was able to back up its threat
of “we will vote you out” is even more
frightening. And the lack of solid support
from straight progressive circles, (“the tim-
ing is bad”), leaves us even more isolated;
the defeat leaves us open to believing that
maybe we did ask for too much.

Saturday, June 26th,
Burlington. Organize.

It’s no time to wonder if our rights and our
lives are worth fighting for. The Christian
Right, no longer able to pull Communists
from every closet, has targeted homo-
sexuals as the threat of the next century. Pat
Robertson’s wealthy Christian Coalition
has hundreds of candidates in local elec-
tions across the country and has vowed to
bankroll Colorado-like amendments in eve-
ry state. Vermont, for all its self—perception
of being different and more progressive
than the rest of middle America, is hardly
free from this backlash movement. We
can’t afford to cower in fear from this
movement, nor can we afford to ignore it.

Saturday, June 26th,

Burlington. Be Proud.

What we can do is show our strength as»;
community right here. Many of the gay, lei
bian and bisexual Vermonters who travel I
to Washington D.C. for the March are 1 '
than enthusiastic about parading up ti;
Church Street Marketplace. But that feelinfi
of real freedom — to be totally out and not
judged for it — we shared in Washington
remains only a fantasy if I can’t hold my
lover’s hand where I live. Of course it’sa
harder struggle and the stakes are different
But by being pro-active — by setting our
own course and defining our own rules -
we begin to shape the community in which
we live; we take it back, and make it ours
too. And we send out a message, to our-
selves as much as to our neighbors, that we
belong here on our own terms.

Saturday, June 26th,
Burlington. Come out.

Coming out at home makes all the differ-
ence because our neighbors, who knew us
all along, suddenly have to look at their
own fears and prejudice through the lens of
their own judgment. Hey, they liked us be-
fore, maybe queers are okay. Our braveryis
often rewarded. Many credit the late Ron
Squires’ act of speaking on the Statehouse
floor as a gay man the turning point for the
passage of Verrnont’s Gay Rights Bill. His
fellow legislators had to step back and hu-
manize both him and the struggle he was
fighting for. I felt the power of over-
throwing stereotypes myself when my 68-
year-old neighbor, a lifelong Vermontet
with pro—life bumper stickers, praised my
post-March op—ed piece in the Vemwnt
Times, where I came out as a “butch dyke"
She literally thanked me for writing it; I’m
still in shock.

Saturdays J line 26th,
Burlington. Party.

All this political ideology aside, Pride Day
just wouldn’t be Gay if we didn’t have fun.
Bring a contingent to the march to shock
and to entertain. Bring your motorcycle and
join Dykes on Bikes. Farmers, bring your
livestock. For ultimate safety and confusion
v'alue, bring a straight friend and carryfi
sign “Guess which one of us is gay.” Ask
that cute girl (or boy) to dance. Make your
home your own!

The Pride Committee is sponsoring buses

from around the state to get people here for
Pride Day. Call 655-6312 or 223-3557 for
info. See insert in this issue for a march and
rally guide. V