V ,.-1. -- ...v. V. V _V_,.._,. ,. ..,, .,-,. .,,....-v--»-uI~<- -; «w- y»-¢«»-..~,..~.~ » 14 — OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — OCTOBER 1997 FALL IS : COMING THREE OLDBATS Anllqucs, Collccllblcs & Llscful Things 207 FLYNN AVE. BURLINGTON, VT 860-l488 Hours:Tues - Sat IO-6, Sun I-5, Closed Mon Lon’ ll. Doxr-:* I’ L O W E R S fl-1 fl//.5/’lJ0fl«t DIV ipnlz ‘lc-s T"lovr.:rs lor all r.“<.'(.‘2’l.~‘»l(">l't9'a. W: '~I't’.‘~l(‘OmC your l)ll~"-l1C~'»‘- 802-863-2300 9 Fax 802-_658-2l9l 550 Dorset SUCH ' South Burlington, Vermont 05403 A . -Déy‘'Cé§:‘Day;/£vgn;ngsle }; is K . ~Bé4r4’i~:fir.Daz$.a.n4 I —Hoi):e.{ittin,gfétjDog; '13 GreatMedicinaI Herbs AT THE ONION RIVER CO-OP Lowest Prices at the Onion River Co-0% , We've expanded our line of Green Mountain Herbs Bulk Extracts: Echinacea _ $5.69 01. Echinacea Alcohol Free $5.99 01. Echinacea Goldenseal 55.99 oz. Echinacea Goldenseal ' Alcohol Free $5.99 92. St. Johnsvvofl. . 55.69 oz. Valerlangkloot 55.69 oz. Kava Kava 56.19 01. Milk Thistle $5.69 01. Ginko , 55.69 oz. Siberian Ginseng - ' $5.29 01. Goldenseal $7.45 01. Asfragaias 55.69 oz. T he best way to buy Iirzctl1ms:' W " 0 reuse your bottles ' purchase the quantities you need 9 ' vuslom nnx your own blend ‘I Q:g\;fi'Q Food For People, Not For Profit. 5,0 _ 9 o ‘L’; o“?‘¢.° ’~ Q \\ l3’l(F. Ol'f§N E\-LR)’ l).~\\l ¢»1é‘~." _ 27-I North Winooski Avenue. Burlingmn 863-3659 Mon-Sat 9:30-8:()0 - sun‘ 1 1-7. \‘lS/\?M/\STERC1\RD Acciai>'1‘l-:o' Meet the Plaintiffs: The OITM Interview with Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh continued from front page where in the Midwest.” She teaches in the Math Depart- ment at UVM as an openly les- bian professor and has lived in Vermont since 1971. Lois, born and raised on a Vermont farm, works as a nurse. She divides her time between a school set- ting and as a care giver at the Arbors, an Alzheimers facility. They have both spent many years working actively in their community, and more recently, becoming involved with GLBT issues. OITM: Have you had any his- tory of support or trouble liv- ing in Vermont as a couple? Holly: Support I think has al- ways been there. People have pretty much been "Lois and Holly, Holly and Lois.” You know, just like another couple; it might be "Tom and ]udy." People have pretty much ac- cepted that we're a pair, we come together. We've been ac- tive in the community. Lois has been involved in school things, I've been on the library board. Lois: Between the two of us, we've been on recreation com- mission, library board, friends of the library, Girl Scouts, soft- ball, school building commit- tee, parent teacher groups, clean up day, and involved in the church. We're typical. We've been in Milton for twenty years and I think people have just accepted’ us as members of the community. - OITM: Have you seen any kind of progression in terms of it being easier to be out as a couple? - Lois: Well, it's interesting; a lot of people knew who we were. We didn't advertise it. Obvi- ou_sly once this marriage suit came out, everybody knew. If it was any kind of a secret be- fore it certainly isn't anymore. And since the issue has come out, we've gotten nothing but support. The day after the press conference [announcing the lawsuit], somebody came up to us in the Milton Grand Union and said "didn't I see you on the news last night? Good for you. More people ought to stick up for what's right." And people with small _businesses in Milton have asked us what they could do, if we needed them to write any letters or anything. So we've gotten nothing but endorse- ments since that time. Which is not to say that there aren't those who are against us. I think they may find it more comfortable to say nothing than to come out and say they don't believe in it. OITM: Have you been in- volved in the GLBT commu- nity in the past? Lois: Actually not as much as we should have. I got involved about three years ago,‘ I guess‘ when we attended the first (VCLGR) Town Meeting.... So we got involved there; we got involved with the Freedom to Marry Task Force, Outright Vermont. We've been foster parents. One of our foster placements we hooked up with Outright. OITM: How did you get in- volved in this case, and why did you get involved? Lois: Well, getting married af- ter almost twenty five years was almost a non—issue, until we realized the many different legal protections that were available if you're legally mar- ried — and there's hundreds. So we decided it was time to pursue it; that at this time in our lives, maybe we ought to give, something back to the people that had been the activ- ists to get all these benefits... Since we were now recipients of some of those benefits we thought maybe it was time we became a little bit more involved....I think people need to realize that there's a lot more of us out there than they think, that there are a lot of [GLBT] native Vermonters, that these people are not coming in from down country or San Francisco or wherever, just to inundate Vermont with homosexuals. OITM: Was it a difficult deci- ' sion to take this on? Holly: Difficult is not the word. It's something we thought about long and hard, because you don't know what's going to happen down the road. So we thought about it. Lois: We had been warned by the attorneys involved....There is the possibility that someone could [for example] burn your house down. We fina11yde— cided to take that chance. If you acted in fear of taking a stand, nothing would have ever been accomplished in this ' world. Somebody's got to do that. OITM: Had you discussed marriage or a commitment cer- emony in the past? Holly: Twenty five years ago nobody talked about it. At the time of our twentieth anniver- sary, we talked about it some; and even then they were not real common. I don't think we knew of more than one or two people who had done it. We talked about it, but not real se- riously. It's been in the last five years that it's evolved, and a lot of it has been not because of a need to express our com- mitment.... OITM: You can get married anytime you want to, spiritu- ally. . Holly: Yeah. Right now, we're legal strangers. In the eyes of the law, Lois and I don't know each other and that means that things like my social security, » if I were to die — no survivor benefits; pensions. My pension goes directly to a spouse [but] she loses that. Lois: I do get hospital benefits now through‘ Holly cause she teaches at UVM. However, she's taxed on that benefit. If we were married, she would not be. ' : OITM: Why do you think this is all happening now? Lois: I think that whole Hawaii issue brought it to the forefront as far as becoming an issue at all. If there's ever a good time to bring up an issue like this, Vermont is as good a place as any to bring it up....Vermont’s got a lot of firsts, and Vermont- ers are pretty independent. There's a lot of live and let live [here]. A lot of people just go about their business without a lot of judgment of them. OITM: How did you two meet? _, . Holly: Summer session I walked into class and there was this very attractive, gray haired — and remember, it was twenty five years ago ——~ gray haired lady. So afterthe end of summer session, we started to... . Lois: Socialize. Holly: Thank you Lois: After the class was all over Holly: Yeah. OITM: Did one ask the other out? Lois: Ithink it was almufltual 1.-'