Out in the Mountains

From the Editor:
Bernie’s Back,

No Joy for Jan, and Too Much Newt

Fred Kuhr

WINOOSKI -- The day after Election Day,
I stayed home and watched CNN in a nearly
catatonic state. Early in the moming, Phil
Grarnm, Republican Senator from Texas
who has already declared his candidacy for
the ‘96 presidential race, stated that he was
willing to cooperate with the President as
long as Gramm always got his way. I stared
so intensely at Newt Gingrich’s face at one
point that I could only see those little pixles
that made up his televised image. Friends of
mine walked around depressed and angry for
days. One fiiend even wore black to work.

The analyses and predictions that surrounded
and trailed the elections have been all over
the political map. I have heard everything
from “the Republicans won’t be able to
accomplish anything and will be tossed out
in two years” to “the Progressive and civil
rights movements are over". However the
next two years play out, let us take a final and
more local look at the results as we enter this
new year and new political era.

Before we get all hot under our collars, some
(albeit very few) good things happened. To
no one’s surprise, Governor Howard Dean
won reelection with 70% of the vote. As a
friend of the community, he has worked
cooperatively with Keith Goslant and Holly
Perdue, former Vermont Coalition for
Lesbian and Gay Rights Co—Liaisons to the
Governor, and was there when the
Legislature voted in 1992 to make Vermont
one of the only states in the country to
prohibit discrirrrination based upon sexual
orientation. Dean’s position on gay issues is
unlikely to change as former VCLGR
Co—Chair Susan Aranoff and former State
Representative Thomas Fleury take over the
reins as Co—Liaisons. So in the Govemor’s
race, we win a point.

Another win for the community was in the
U.S. House race. Although Bernie Sanders
prepared himself for defeat as he spoke to the
cautiously optimistic crowd at Sweetwater's,
the Burlington restaurant that hosted the
Progressive Coalition’s victory celebration,
he eventually did squeak out a
two—percentage-point victory to the dismay
of his Republican challenger, three-term
Windsor County State Senator John Carroll.
This was perhaps the most bizarre race since

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the issue of gay and lesbian rights was the
only position they shared. “In terms of gay
rights,” Bemie stated during a Pride Day
interview back in June, “the basic issue is —
are all people in our state, in our country,
entitled to basic human rights? To be treated
based on their character and not on their
sexual orientation? And the answer is,
unequivocally, ‘Yes’.” Carroll, who voted
for Hate Crimes legislation and the Gay
Rights Bill while in the State Senate, said in
a recent interview, “I want people dealt with
solely on the basis of their integrity and their
contribution to the well-being of all of us.”
One of the key issues here was, and still is,
health care. Bernie supports a single payer
health care system; Carroll does not. A
single payer system would eliminate the
need for and the worry surrounding
domestic partner benefits; we would all be
covered all the time, regardless of the gender
of our domestic partners. So in the U.S.
House race, we win another point.

Another local win came in the State House
race in Hinesburg. William Lippert, the
former VCLGR Co—Chair who was
appointed by Governor Dean last April to
replace Democratic State Representative
Chuck Ross who resigned to take a job with
Senator Patrick Leahy, won his first election
victory in November. Lippert is now the
only openly gay man (or lesbian for that
matter) in the Vermont Legislature. For
I-Iinesburg, we win another point.

And now the losses...and perhaps the biggest
loss was in the U.S. Senate race. Incumbent
Republican James Jeffords won an easy
ten—percentage-point victory over
Democratic Windham County State Senator
Jan Backus. Jan is a very vocal supporter of
lesbian and gay rights, reproductive rights,
AIDS issues, and the single payer health
care system. Whereas Jeffords finally met
recently with representatives of the gay and
lesbian community after years of hounding,
Jan was already meeting with us. And even
though Jeffords is considered the most
liberal Republican in the U.S. Senate, he still
counts as a Republican when C-SPAN
tallies up the majority/minority totals. So in
the U.S. Senate race, we lose a point.

The Lieutenant Govemor’s race may have
been a relatively boring one, but it was an
important one. On one side we had the