Letters to the Editor .

Post-Pride Marriage Musings
Dear OITM:

Having participated in my first ”Gay Pride”
celebration and having read much about recent
legislative efforts to restrict or prohibit gay
marriage, I would like to offer two
observations which I have not yet seen
expressed.

1) There is no tenable argument against gay

marriage. The only real difference between

, gay and straight marriage is that people of
the same sex cannot procreate with each
other, and even that is not an absolute
distinction since it is also true in some
straight marriages. Even the Bible is not
clear in the eyes of many devout and
scholarly interpreters.

2) Though I'm not a lawyer and not aware of
the Constitutional arguments available, I
think that to prohibit or restrict gay
marriages denies one the three fundamental
rights guaranteed in the Declaration of
Independence: ”Life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.” If marriage, in the sense of a
life—long legal, social, physical, and spiritual
commitment, with or without procreative
intent, is not ”the pursuit of happiness,” I
don't know what is! If the Consfitution
doesn't support this, an amendment should
be introduced at once! I say this as the
4-great—grandson of the man who wrote
those words.

I am also a member of the clergy and therefore
I must ask that my last name not be used, a.
privilege I can also invoke as a ”Friend of Bill
W. II ‘

Sincerely,
Bob C.

Low-Income Advocacy Grou
Seeks Support V

Dear OITM:

We are writing to let your readers know that a

,_ new low-income advocacy group has been

born in Burlington. We are Fight Back Now!,
and our mission is ”to combat the external and
intemalized oppression created by living in

poverty, while embracing our varied
backgrounds and our lives with a fierce truth
and spirit that demands respect, justice, and

equity.”

Fight Back Now! will focus on making
information and resources accessible to
low-income people so that we can fight back
now. Our work is to empower and support
ourselves and other through training,
education, organizing, and advocacy using
local and state resources.

Fight Back Now! grew out of the needs of
people on welfare who are being and will be
caught in the implementation of ”welfare
reform” in Vermont, especially ”work fare.”
People will be forced to work — at no wage
— in order to receive their public assistance to
house, feed, and clothe themselves and their

children. We are politically opposed to ”work I

fare” and will advocate for its elimination at
the state and federal levels.

However, we also listen to the desperate
voices of people caught in its trap, and we
seek to offer them an alternative: a place to
”volunteer” their weekly hours in an
organization that truly seeks to build and
empower a movement of low-income people
(working and unemployed) to reclaim their
rightful, respected, and resourceful
contributions to the health of our community.

There are low-income gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgendered people in Vermont, so
poverty issues need to be addressed in the
queer community. Queer issues are
low-income issues; low-income issues are
queer issues. We invite all of your readers to

_ educate themselves and to support this

movement. There are many groups working
on these issues: The Women's Union, the
Low-Income Advocacy Council, and the
Interfaith Economic Justice Coalition just to
name a few. Find your niche, and let's work
together.

Fight Back Now! has open drop-in hours from
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays at the Last Elm
Cafe at the comer of North and North
Winooski Streets in Burlington. We'll also be
offering discussions on Fridays so we can
learn together about The System and how to
survive in it.

September 1996

Fight Back Now! has organization-building meetings at the
Last Elm Cafe on Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon. Join us in the
work and excitement of creating a place where low-income
people are leading the way to a stronger, more just society for
all of us. You can also call us at Chittenden Community Action
at 863-6428. »

Diana Scho/I
Burlington

Baptists Vs. Disney

Dear OITM:

In view of the Southern Baptists‘ resolutions to boycott the Walt
Disney Company for being "anti-family" and to convert Iews,
perhaps Disney could create a new theme park attraction just
for the Baptists. They could call it "lt's A Small, Small Mind."

Sincerely,
Alan L. Light
_Iowa City, Iowa

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Out and About...

Nan Reid gave birth to a daughter, Willa
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