Out in the Mountains ‘except —‘fdr Avatne ‘m Bufitgton. Our rnaifing address is Box 177, aurfington VT our e-mail address is O|TM@aoI.com _.Bulk rate postage forthe mafling of the newspaper is paidin withintheunibdsialzes. ~~ © 1996, Out in the Mountains. ' Statement of Purpose 6s.%!iv°i°e'f°’He’=~’.’ bians, b>isext'ials,ftrans~" Qendetfid ' P°.°Dle.,’ei'i".ahd “our stmporiers in verincnt the vtdi-l2e'§_so.ur9é6'._‘ iion..We also asga In The .li/loumains 3’(|$SN, 1081-5562) is published monthly , a» jcombine"cl.~ Julylltugusteissue. The . ma'niz'1s at 109 South A Editorial First Things First by Hugh Coyle, Editor of OITM Before I get going, let me say how invigorating it is to be back at the Editor's desk of Out in the Mountains. Many thanks to previous Editors Deb Lashman and Fred Kuhr, who both moved the paper forward on many fronts and transformed it into the cutting edge publication that it always wanted to be. Extreme thanks also to two of the paper's longest-running staff members, Steven West and David Grist, for their dedication and . expertise through several editorial transitions. Along those same lines, thanks to Bruce Howden for providing both sense and sensibility as the layout artist for the paper. And thanks to everyone else who has donated time either writing, photographing, typing, or stuffing envelopes — to all those who monthly fulfill our goal to be a true "community" newspaper. Most of all, thanks to you, OITM's readers and subscribers, for supporting the paper all these years. And for those who haven't subscribed yet, may I draw your attention to the one—time—only 10th Anniversary That's half off the regular rate! One last note before I launch into the editorial... With this issue, I am extremely proud and excited to have transgendered people represented within our pages. We have also reworded our front page heading to reflect the fact that we are writing not only for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered persons, but for all those who are interested in and affected by our issues (and who isn't?). Thanks to Rachel Lurie for the simple yet powerful rewording of our mission, and for making it fit in the space allotted! Now, on to the business at hand... Are Gays Good for Business? In his soon—to—be—published book A Queer Geography, author Frank Browning considers questions overhead following the Stonewall 25 celebration in New York City. "What had become of the original gay liberation movement marked by the Stonewall riots?" he writes. "Had it ‘matured’ into a gay marketing movement?" This question haunted me throughout my research into the Vermont Teddy Bear story. The question also surfaced in recent conversations with friends, and again at February's OutWrite conference, where panelists discussed the marketing of. gay and lesbian books in a seminar entitled "Put Someone Naked on the Cover." Throughout it all, images of semi—clad young men flexing and leather-clad women deep-kissing both tempted and turned me away. In the end, temptation won out, just as it may have for many of you who picked up this copy of our newspaper simply because there was a cute shirtless stud on the front cover. special subscription rate of $10 for a full year... ‘ Let's face the facts: sex sells, no matter the market. It attracts us, distracts us, and ultimately extracts us from our commonplace lives. That's why BMG made a mint recently with repackaged collections of classical music: they made the cover artwork brim with both hetero and homo sensuality. They knew that most people (but men especially, it seems)‘kept their money in their pockets, right snug up close to their erogenous zones"; ' Even so, I would rather live in a world chock full of these images than a world scoured clean of any hint of the erotic or sexual. To do away with all of these images would leave us with anempty tub, void of both baby and bathwater. If you listen closely these days, however, you can hear the bristles of the scrub-brush busily at work on the porcelain. President Clinton passed a bill to police ‘and censor "indecency" on the Internet. He endorsed the distribution of the V—chip, hoping to shield young television viewers from any trace of violence or sexuality. And, like the Republican muggers before him, he tossed his hat into the anti—gay—marriage ring.‘ ' This latter point, a hybrid act of both oppression and exploitation,’ doubly abuses the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities. It further endorses a discriminatory prohibition already in place while scoring points and winning extra greenbacks for the campaign. Politicians ride high by virtue of our existence, yet simultaneously seek to deny our existence by claiming that homosexuality isn't a valid orientation at all, and that if it is, it's "only" sexual, not affectional. It's lust and desire, base filth and pornography, a thing that, in the eyes of those like Jesse Helms, can never aspire to the aesthetic or transcendent. You'd think that for many "God—fearing folks," nothing at all lurks below their Bible belts. Once again, it all comes down to sex. Fear of sex. Hatred of sex. Disgust with sex, especially gay sex. And, for many Americans both straight and gay alike, despair and frustration over the lack of sex. If we are to avoid this negative and ultimately debilitating view of sex — and here I address members of all libidinous persuasions — we must think and act in a sex-positive manner. We must recognize and own our sexualities, and not let others abuse and corrupt them for want of votes and/or profits. And if they do come knocking on our bedroom doors asking for either, we must demand respect and fair treatment. Like it or not, we are both a community and a cashpile, and in both regards we can command a great deal of clout. But when businesses see only dollars or seek to undercut or ignore our issues, we must turn them away. For those of us in the gay, lesbian, bi, and trans communities, that is the only truly profitable way to do business in the mainstream marketplace. V \ . MICHAEL GIGAN TE, PH.D. Psychosynthesis Counseling & Therapy (802) 254 -8032 15.Myrtle St., Brattleboro, VT 05301 g'\'_" I . . ié‘vr'”» ‘W-.'i 1 - lMoIr11t,am Bu11d.CI‘*§$ r" I If F} . . ». a :2- ’. ~ ' ~ Kristine Karge, C.S.W ' ‘ — ,0 905 , .3. 3 Psychotherapy and Consultation I ' » . , ' U Individuals 0 Couples °Families _ V ____a‘ . [W Sm - A iscéen tioiis (bu roach / / / . to 7‘ci$Ld,c1vltLa.[/ can.st:mction.. 2 Church Street Se7*vi7rig Frmi/<[L'i1, L.:LiiioZ7H.e Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 860-8460 5, C;,,"tte,,,,{,m C,,,,,,,.tgg_,-_ . 4'09 Eeewouy Susan McKenzie MS. ‘ , Janet K. Brown, M. A., C.A.D.C. L1censed Psycho]ogj5[_1\/[aster LICENSED PSYCHOLOGIST - MASTER ' CERTIFIED ALCOHOL AND DRUG COUNSELOR Experie.’nced_th‘erapist specializing in the individual and JeaI"I Townsend, M.A., L.C.M.H.C relationship issues of Lesbian Women and Gay Men LICENSED CLIMCAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR ’ Qllechee V Montpelier Norwich _ E 'f '8 0 2 2 9 5 ' 5 5 3 3 '(\gI.o-r£ls'1\