Out in the Mountains

Editorial

Making a Connection for Civil Rights

Bill Darker

On Thursday, January 7th at 1:00 in the
morning, the city council in Lewiston,
Maine, became the second in the state to
prohibit discrimination based on sexual
orientation. The ordinance‘ had the sup-
port of many community leaders, in-
cluding Lewiston’s mayor and chief of
police. However, the ordinance had its de-
tractors.

Largely Franco—American (many of it’s
residents speak French as a first lan-
guage), Lewiston’s 40,000 citizens are
blue collar, Roman Catholic and con-
servative. A group called “Citizens of Le-
wiston for the Repeal of Special Homo-
sexual'Rights” initiated a petition drive
for the repeal of the ordinance. They gar-
nered the necessary signatures.

Equal Protection Lewiston (EPL) was
formed to mobilize support against the re-
peal effort. They worked hard to chal-
lenge the opponent’s claim that civil
rights are “special” rights. They or-
ganized an office, prepared flyers, took
polls, and placed calls to get the message
out. They gained endorsements from civic

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groups and respected individuals in the
community. My first contact with EPL
was with Finance Coordinator Janet
Welch, an impassioned woman who
knows Lewiston well. She arranged for
me and my colleague at HRCF, Julio
Abreu, to come to Maine for the final
push until election day on November, 2nd.
We stayed with local businessman Denis
Gilbert, an openly gay man.

Last May, Denis was the victim of a brutal
attack perpetrated by two men who knew
of him through his business. They had ar-
rived at his home and asked if they could
come inside for a glass of water. Of
course, Denis obliged. Once inside, they
attacked him with a knife, stabbing him
fifteen times in the ensuing struggle. They
left only when they thought a silent home
alarm to police had been triggered. Denis
Gilbert was victimized but refused to re-
main a victim. He got involved, and so did
his family, including his uncle, Lewiston’s
chief of police, Laurent (Larry) Gilbert.

Larry Gilbert looks just as one might ex-
pect a Chief of Police to look. What was
most unexpected was that this man was
one of the most committed to seeing that
the civil rights ordinance stayed on the
books. I spent all of a Saturday riding
around with him and his 13 year old son,
canvassing Lewiston with EPL literature
and knocking on doors to ask if we could
place “Vote No! Discrimination" signs on
lawns. During the day we discussed the
ordinance repeal effort but most im-
portantly we talked about our own per-
sonal experiences with this discrimination
“thing”, and he asked me about.my own
experience on being gay in today’s so-
ciety. I have rarely‘ had such a deep and in-
timate conversation with, my own family,
and here I was having one with a virtual
stranger! A connection was made. It is all
about connections.

Grass-roots canvassing is not an easy job,
but a necessary one. Equal Protection Le-
wiston had a very committed team of vol-
unteers to conduct information dis-
tribution, make phone calls urging
supporters to vote, and on election day
monitor the polling places. There seemed
to be a problem however. Numbers. Hav-
ing been to the local gay bar in Lewiston,
which is owned by Roland Blais who was
a member of the Hate/Bias Crime Task
Force and instrumental in mobilizing sup-