Volume VI, Number 1

 

 

OITM Celebrates Fiftlgg  

A Look Back at the
Paper's History

by Miki Thomas
I remember back in the fall of 1985
when the idea of a gay and lesbian newspa-
per for Vermont started to gain momentum.
As Philip Roberts wrote in an article cele-
brating the second armiversary of Out in the
Mountains in February 1988, the now de-
I funct Vermonters for Lesbian and Gay
Rights (VLGR) felt that “a vehicle was
needed to help the lesbian/gay community
develop a method of sharing what was
happening in our political, social, and per-
sonal lives.”
Late November of that year, a meeting
was held at the Peace and Justice Center in

Burlington to start up such a paper. Repre-
sentatives from VLGR and interested
community members such as myself at-
tended the meeting. We discussed the con-
tents of the paper and the name of it (Out in
the Mountains was chosen based on past
gay pride logos of New Hampshire and
Vermont). To finance the enterprise, we
applied for a grant from the Haymarket
Peop1e’s Fund of Boston for start-up
money.

The grant from I the Haymarket
People's Fund came through for $2,000 to
get the paper going. Several meetings were
later held, and the next February, the first
issue of Out in the Mountains appeared.

Carrie Coy joined OIT M after moving
to Burlington in February of 1986. She

publicity photo by Erik Borg

    

work on the paper. A small handful of
people would meet at the beginning of each
month to plan the next month’s issue and
then would meet later to read over and edit
whatever stories and press releases came
into the office, which at that time was
rented from the Peace and Justice Center.
As OIT M was not yet computerized, all of
the layout was done by hand.

Once the paper was printed up, the
collective members would then collate it
and get it ready to mail to subscribers and
distribute around town. There were only
fifty to sixty subscribers at that point, with
the emphasis being on free distribution
around the Burlington area. The only other
(continued on page 4)

The Uncontrollable
Gal!

Janice Perry, a.k.a. Gal, is a native
Verrnonter who grew up in Barre and now
lives in Ferrisburgh. A wildly talented per-
formance artist who makes her audiences
think and laugh at the same time, she spends
half her time performing in the United
States and the other half in Europe.

Gal celebrated her 40th birthday last
October with a sold-out performance at
Contois Auditorium in Burlington. Re-
cently, she talked to OIT M about living in
Vermont, her work, and the special chal-
lenges of being a feminist who's funny.
OITM: Why do you stay in Vermont.
GAL: Born here!

OITM: That's the reason?

GAL: Where else am I going to go?
OITM: You could go to New York or
London — all those places where you do
your work.

GAL: Oh, I do. I do that. But having my
house in Ferrisburgh makes it possible for

(continuedon page 14)

_ 

Qgié printed on recycled paper