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VERMONT’S FORUM FOR LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER ISSUES

 

Volume XI, Number 10

February 1997

FREE

Terie Anderson Stens Down As AIDS chiel

by Hugh Coyle

BURLINGTON — Terje Anderson, who has served as
the AIDS Program Chief at the Vermont Department of
Health (VDH) for the past three and a half years, left his
position with the state government and will be moving to
Colorado Springs in April to direct AIDS/HIV programs
in that state’s southern region. Anderson plans to con-
tinue in his role on President Clinton’s Advisory Council
on AIDS/HIV.

“I’m tired of being a bureaucrat,” said Anderson just
days before he finished his work at VDH and embarked
on a month—long vacation in Malaysia and Thailand. “It’s
been very frustrating at times to manage a program that’s
growing in a culture of shrinkage,” he said, referring to
governmental downsizing and budget cuts.

Anderson leaves behind a strong history of work on
the epidemic here in Vermont, including his role as co-
founder and first Executive Director of Vermont CARES
in Burlington. He spoke with OITM about a number of
issues related to AIDS and HIV. Below are excerpts from
our discussion:

On the history of AIDS and HIV organizations in Ver-
mont: “When we started doing AIDS work in the early
1980’s, it was a group of people responding to the needs
of their friends. It was well—intentioned; it was very per-
sonalized, and it was very grass roots. We thought it was
going to be over in a few years. Nobody thought we were

going to have to build permanent organizations that were
going to have to be around for decades.”

On Vermont’s national reputation: “One of the things
that we consistently have been laucted for is that we’ve
looked at the overlap between prevention and services,
and we haven’t drawn an artificial line between them.
We’ve made it a priority to look at that overlap. Very few
states have done that. We‘re also cited constantly as an
example of a small state where an HIV Community Plan-
ning Group has worked.”

On the future of AIDS Service Organizations (ASO’s):
“We need to be thinking about how we build professional
organizations that are still connected to the community.
We’re struggling to make the transition from simple edu-
cation to well—targeted, well—designed, well-implemented
programs. ASO’s are constantly having to re—invent them-
selves as the epidemic changes in terms of who they’re
serving (dealing with people ofcolor, with injection drug
users, dealing with women, dealing with people with low
incomes). The epidemic clearly is moving into many new
communities, and what worked for one population doesn’t
necessarily work for another. I

“In addition, ASO’s are having to change as the needs
that people present change. In many ways, what they once
did was try to support people through a dying process,
and as the prognosis has changed, as new treatments and

(COI1tfIIIl€(/ on page 5)

From Insult to Injury:

Hate Crime Victims Endure Further Violence

ST. JOHNSBURY — Less than a week after their testi-
mony in a hate crimes case led to the conviction of their
harasser, Roberta MacDonald and Estella Davis received
front page coverage in their local paper once again, this
time following an incident which led to Davis’s being
charged with battery.

The Caleclonian Record reported Davis’s arrest in an
article entitled “Local Accuser Now Accused” on Tues-
day, January I4, four days after police had been sum-
moned to the women’s home by MacDonald. Both women
were shocked by the story, which neglected to mention
many of the extenuating circumstances surrounding
Davis’s being" taken into custody.

“None of the facts were there,” Davis complained.
“They wrote the article without getting all the facts cor-
rect or correctly identifying the situation.” Both Davis
and her partner felt that had they not been lesbians, the
story would not have been front page news.

The trouble beganjust days after Edward Nichols, age
60, was sentenced to a year in jail for harassing the women
in the summer of I996. Nichols, who had previously been
convicted of manslaughter in the death of a New Hamp-
shire woman, had verbally abused MacDonald and Davis
and threatened to kill them if they continued to see a
mutual female friend named Toni. -

"Mr. Nichols ran right into the street. . .and told us we
were filthy lesbians and muffdivers and told me he would

‘ stab me ifI continued to see Toni," Davis testified in court.

"I was totally insulted."
Deputy State’s Attorney Robert Butterlield said that
the women “have a right to use the streets like anybody

else. These women, because they’re lesbian, don’t have
any less rights.” ~ 4

Nichols’ conviction of a hate crime was the first in
Caledonia County since the Vermont law identifying such
crimes went into effect in 1990. Normally, the charges he
faced would have carried a maximum sentence of60 days
in ‘prison.

News of the court’s decision wasn’t enough to over-
come Davis’s depression, which came as the result not
only of the harassment she and her partner had endured,
but also of news received two months earlier that she had
cancer. Davis was scheduled to begin chemotherapy the
week following the trial and felt a great deal of fear and
anxiety due to her previous health history.

I Overwhelmed by the prospects for her future, Davis
says she fell “into the pits of suicidal depression” on the
night of Friday, January 17. She argued with her partner
and tried to leave their home with the intent ofjumping
off a nearby bridge to end her life. When MacDonald re-
fused to allow Davis to leave, tensions escalated. Davis
struck her partner, and MacDonald subsequently called
the police for assistance.

According to Davis, the policemen arrived and forc-
ibly restrained her. She claimed that the officers told her
that she was going to jail, put handcuffs on her wrists,
dragged her outside, pushed her against the patrol car,
spat in her face, and also called her a “muff diver.” She
said she was shocked that the police would “come up to
my house and drag me down the stairs without looking at
the actual condition of the situation,” referring to her own

(continued on page 1])

1 -~

Former Vermont AIDS Chief Ter/'e A/z(ler.m/1 at a
recent Pride Day rally. (photo by S!(.I'£JI1 Aranof/')

It’s Pat:

An Interview with
Sen. Patrick Leahy

by Paul Olsen

United States Senator Patrick Leahy may just be a
victim ofhis own record. Leahy, a Democrat, has histori-
cally supported issues of national concern to lesbian, gay,
and bisexual Americans. Since 1992, he has cospons(>i‘ed
federal legislation prohibiting discrimination on the ba-
sis ofsexual orientation. He supported lifting the military’s
ban on lesbians and gays and has adopted a policy pro-
hibiting sexual orientation-based discrimination in his
office. He voted in favor of the Hate Crimes Statistics

I Act, which collects data regarding crimes motivated by

bigotry including homophobia. He has supported fund-
ing for AIDS services and education and voted to allow
the District of Columbia to implement domestic partner
registration. '

Based on his voting record in the 104th Congress,
Leahy received an 89% positive rating from the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC), a Washington D.C. based gay
and lesbian rights lobbying group. He received a l00%
HRC rating for the l0lst, l02nd, and l03rd sessions of
Congress. Based in part on votes “promoting homosexu-
ality,” the Christian Coalition gave Leahy a 0% rating in
their 1996 election year guide. ,

It is perhaps Leahy’s record of support that best ex-
plainsthe shock, anger, disbelief, and disappointment that
characterized the response of many gay, lesbian, and bi-
sexual Vermonters upon learning that he voted in support
of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on September
10, 1996. ‘ ‘

(continuetl on page 8)