Adoption Reform Bill (S-136) currently in the
Vermont Senate. In the Senate Health & Welfare
committee, Democrat Leon Graves (Franklin
Co.), along with Republicans Judy Bloomer
(Rutland Co.) and James Greenwood
(Essex/Orleans Co.), introduced a horrible
amendment to the ‘who may adopt‘ section of the
bill that specifically excluded adoption by
same—sex couples. Chair of that committee Helen
Riehle (R-Chittenden) and committee member
Nancy Chard (D-Windsor) fought against the
amendment, but were out-voted. The bill is now
in the Senate Judiciary committee where chair
Susan Sweetser (R-Chittenden) has worked hard
to get the amendment changed. (The bill,
including the ‘bad’ amendment, will proceed to
the Senate floor in January. Hopefully, another
amendment will be proposed on the floor to
change the bad language —- but that's -another
article.)

Let's also look back to the voting profile of one of
the biggest bills to impact our community in
recent years: the Civil Rights Law of 1992 that
prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation. Can we assume that Democrats in
the House and Senate voted in support of this bill,
and that Republicans voted against it? If we
apply the ‘analysis by -label’ approach, we'd be
wrong. In the House of Representatives, the 'Yes‘
votes in support of the bill included 2
Progressives, 54 Democrats and 19 Republicans.
The ‘No’ votes included 16 Democrats and 53
Republicans. And it is important to note that
Rep. Robert Starr (D-Newport), even after voting
yes on the bill, then succumbed to great pressure
from the radical right and tried to defeat the bill
by employing a procedural technicality to call for
a highly unusual third vote on the floor, hoping
to reverse the bill after it passed on both earlier
votes. (Bills usually go through three ‘readings’
and two votes on the floor.) So much for
assuming that all Democrats are our friends!
Another important note is that the lead sponsor of
the bill in the House was Rep. Vi Luginbuhl
(R—South Burlington), who was a tireless
champion for the Civil Rights Bill for several
years leading up to its eventual passage. So much

for assuming that Republicans can't be our
friends! Our champion and lead sponsor in the
Senate was Sen. David Wold, (D—Rutland), where
the vote also defied the ‘label by party’ notion:
'No' votes were cast by l Democrat and 8
Republicans; and 'Yes‘ votes included 7
Republicans and 13 Democrats.

Hard to keep track of all this without a scorecard,
isn't it? Exactly. That's why we must use
scorecards as the basis for determining who is
with us or who is against us. We must look at the
voting records of legislators who vote in
Montpelier. We must look at the actions of other
elected officials, like the Governor and
Lieutenant Governor, who do not vote (except for
the Lieutenant Governor) but who influence
votes and are leaders of their parties. We must
look at their individual records and hold them
accountable for what they do or don't do on
behalf of protecting the civil rights of all
Vermonters. And we should hold them
accountable for what they are or are not doing to
influence their party platform. But the
one-size-fits-all approach to judging individual
Republicans and Democrats just doesn't work. It
lets off the hook those who are working against
us but happen to have a ‘friendly’ Democrat label;
and it fails to acknowledge those who work for
us but have the ‘unfriendly’ Republican tag.

C'mon, we're smarter than that. More than
anyone, we should know better than to stereotype
a whole group of people based on one
commonly-shared characteristic.

Mary Hurlie is Co—Chair of the Vermont
Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Rights and submits
this article on behalf of the VCLGR Board of
Directors.

All readers are encouraged to take their turn at
the editorial bat and let their voices be heard on
the topic of their choice. Send articles/columns
to Out In The Mountains, P.0. Box 177,
Burlington, VT 05402, or via the Internet at
0utVermont@aol.com. V

The Hills Are Alive (Cont. from page 1)

' W‘ Drag Queen Che-
’ rie Tart not only
displayed the best
gains of the eve-
ning, but also got
off the best one-
liner. Noting that
the South Burling-
‘ ._ ton Interactive TV

" site is housed in
the NYNEX

   
  

_ _ building, Cherie,

. :: an aspiring NYN-
Craig Mitchell and Cherie EX SP°‘“‘-SP°‘5,°“
Tartt (l-r) at ”Nl0VEX right an?‘ Mary A1106
now" in South Burlington Wlnlams Wan‘
nabe, purred,

"This is NYNEX right now." And that about
summed up the state of gay and lesbian culture in
Vermont today -- smart, irreverent, and some-
times painfully personal.

"""'1

 
 

VERMONT'S NEWSPAPER FOR LESBIANS, GAY MEN, AND BISEXUALS

By subscribing now to OITM, not only will you guarantee delivery to your mailbox (in a
discreet envelope, of course),.but you will also help underwrite the rising costs of pub-
lishing the newspaper. We also welcome any additional contributions you can make to
support our continuing existence. Checks should be made payable to OITM and sent,
along with this form, to: OITM, P.O. Box 177, Burlington, Vermont 05402-0177.

*****

The Fourth Friday Series was undertaken by the
Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights as a
means of addressing the isolation felt by many
members throughout the state. By bringing com-
munity members together on a monthly basis to
participate in discussions on the rise of the Re-
ligious Right in Vermont, the status of current leg-
islative thrusts on "family" issues as they affect
sarne-sex couples (particularly the recent Adoption
Bill and conflicts over marriage rights), and con-
tributions made by our community to Vermont
culture, VCLGR provided a forum for exchanging
information, ideas, and friendship. VCLGR is al-
ways looking for ways to serve and engage the
community, and will probably be inclined to un-
dertake a similar program in the near future. Louise
Brill, VCLGR Treasurer, remarked following this
final evening on Interactive Television that "it is
obvious from the connections made just tonight
that we have been successful." V

11111111I1:1:jj1j:1111111111111&1j1:1

Out in the Mountains;

Address
City

State Zip

CI One-year ($20) Cl Low-income ($10) CI Sponsor ($
Sponsors are especially welcome from those who prefer to pick up OITM at one of the paper's
distribution points rather than be added to the mailing list.

CI Please also let us know if you'd like to get involved in the newspaper.

I
I
I
I
I
I Name
I
I
I
I
I
I

06/ 95

3

  

June 1995

Letters to the Editor

Calling All Lesbians!!!

Do we comprise a community? Are you a part of it? Do you love
it? Avoid it? These are the questions I hear a lot of lesbians talking
about. We all seem to have an idea of what lesbian community is
or means to us, but sometimes disagree beyond our individual ex-
periences. How do we know who we collectively are and where
we're going? Do we read Dykes To Watch Out For, or trek to
Michigan to find out what the hot topics are, or are we living with
them in our everyday lives? Everyone else is talking about us, de-
fining us, hating us, envying us —— what does all this mean to us
personally and as a group here in Vermont?

I thought it could be fun to have a place in OI TM where we could
talk about our lesbian communityl communities as we live it. Is
our experience different in Burlington or Brattleboro, Glover or
Fairfield? Let's tell each other our stories about who we are, how
we see each other, and how we might belong to that larger in-
tangible and changing thing so many of us declare membership in.
So send your ideas, experiences, blessings, gripes or whatever
(with your name and location) to OITM at P.O. Box 177, Burling-
ton, VT 05402, or via the Internet at OutVerrnont@aol.com. ‘Let's
use this as a place to continue the discourse about ourselves.

Cara Mia
South Burlington
CaraMia519@aol.com

*****

An OITM Flashback

Congratulations on Volume X, Number 1! The new format looks
great. When a small group of us gathered in 1985 to brainstorm
and eventually create a newspaper for Vermont's lesbian, gay, and
bisexual citizens, who would have known that this paper would
still be alive and well ten years later. What better example of
grassroots organizing than this! As the anniversary issue dem-
onstrated in the "0ITM Flashbacks" article, many individuals
have poured in hundreds of hours of volunteerism to cover stories,
produce the paper and distribute (it) each month. The sense of pur-
pose that many of us felt while participating in OITM was for me
an immersion in Vermont's l/g/b community that helped sustain
me in good and bad times. And just when (we) thought that the
paper was going to collapse in 1990, new people became involved
and they continue to keep OITM going. Thank you!

Having moved from Vermont last summer, receiving 01 TM helps
keep me connected to the l/g/b community in the Green Mountain
State. I hope people will find the financial resources, time and de-
termination to continue producing this valuable paper for us all.

Philip Roberta
Boston, MA

*****
The Next To Last Word 

Not wanting to get embroiled in your current controversy over
Bechdel‘s Dykes comic strip, if not in OITM, then where? The les-
bigay press is for the lesbigay community. If other readers are
somewhat upset, so be it. You are in my house.

I never complained to other newspapers about Garfield's penchant,

for dog abuse. The problem here, again, is the Christian agenda.
Best to remember, churches of that ilk tolerate the lesbigay mem-
bers for their deep pockets, nothing else.

Albert: fianterre
Salem, NH

*****

 From The Source's Mouth

/
It was really touching to read all the wonderf 1 testimonials for
Dykes To Watch Out For on the letters page in the last three is-
sues of OITM. Thank you to everyone who took the trouble to
write and defend my work against the accusation of "poor taste." I
feel very, very fortunate to have such an enlightened and ap-
preciative audience, and I promise to keep writing about our lives,
sex and all, no matter what the Rutland United Methodist Church
thinks.

A/{eon Beohdel
Waterbury V