Volume VII, Number 12

February 1 993

 

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Ron Squires Dies;

Ron Squires at the signing of Vermont's civil rights bill.

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Photo Gene Barfield

Burlington Passes
Domestic Partner
Benefits

In a 9-4 vote January 11, as OITM went
to press, the Burlington City Council
passed a proposal to provide health care
benefits for domestic partners of city em-
ployees. With the vote, Burlington joins
the ranks of a number of municipalites
around the country recognizing the rights
of domestic partners. It is the first city in
Vermont to enact such coverge. Voting
for the proposal were Councilors Mau-
rice Mahoney, D-Ward 1; Sharon Bu-
shor, I-Wardl; Donna Bailey, PC-Ward
1; Dana Clark, PC-Ward 2; Barbara Nol-
fi, PC-Ward 3; Brian Pine, PC-Ward 3;
Richard Frothingham, D-Ward 4; Mark
Kornbluh, PC-Ward 5; and Paul La-
fayette, D-Ward 5. Voting against were
Willliam Aswad, D-Ward 4; Dianne De-
forge, R—Ward 4; Peter Brownell, R-
Ward 6; and Ann Hallowell, D-Ward 6.
Read next month's OITM for further cov-
erage of the vote and what it means.V

Deborah Lashman

Rep. Ron Squires, Vermont’s first open-
ly gay legislator, died January 7th, two
days after being sworn in to his second
tenn in the legislature from his hospital
bed. His mother Shirley Squires said Ron
had hoped to be strong enough to go to
Montpelier for the swearing in. When
that wasn’t possible, the Vermont House
changed its rules to allow House Clerk
Robert Picher and Speaker Ralph Wright
to give the oath at Brattleboro Memorial
Hospital. Squires’ mother, two brothers,
three sisters, partner and close friends
were with him for the swearing in. Wind-
ham County Democratic Chair, Anne
Rider, said Squires had planned to pub-
licly reveal his diagnosis but had not de-
cided when to do so.

Squires, who was a leader in the fight for
Vermont’s civil rights bill last year, also
worked hard on local issues, including
relocating a welcome center on I-91 and
trying to bring sewerage service to a sec-
tion of Guilford. In an interview with
OITM shortly after election to his first
term, Squires said, “Clearly my first al-
legiance has to be to the constituents that
elected me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t
be true to myself and the community that
I come from. It just means that at times
I’ll have to work on a bridge when I’d
rather be getting funding for the Health
Department.” Testimony to his con-
stituency commitment was Squires’ easy
re-election last November, when he was
the top vote getter inevery town in his dis-
trict.

He served as vice-chair of the Govem-
ment Operations Committee in the last
session of the legislature and Speaker
Wright appointed Squires chair the day
before his death. Squires held a number
of local and state elective and party of-
fices in his 20 years in politics, including
five years as vice-chair of Vermont’s
Democratic Party (the first openly gay
person to be a presiding officer of a state
party). He lead the Vermont Delegation
to the Democratic National Convention
in 1988 and served as a member of the
delegation and as a member of the Na-
tional Platform Committee at last year’s
convention in New York. President Elect
Bill Clinton spoke with Shirley Squires
the night before Squires’ death.
0.

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