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VOLUME Xlll, NUMBER 1

 

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FEATU RES: 1
2 The Zen of ice Fishing .
16 Unitarian Universalists &

BY DIANE SHAMAS

Interweave
Three same-gender
SECTIONS: couples took the next step in
14 arts & entertainment

their eagerly anticipated jour-
ney to the Vermont Supreme
court by filing a Notice of Ap-

18 health & wellbeing

MONTH LY CO‘-UMN57 peal on January 15, 1998. Their
4V°l°e3 from the mnnnlalns lawsuit, Baker 12. State, which
6 lahh matters seeks the right to same—gender
7 Cl/nelshani civil marriage, was dismissed
8 legal briefs by Superior Court Judge Linda
9 the Source Levitt less than a month earlier.
lo news hnels While the Superior Court de-
12 Crowys nest cision came as a disappoint-
l2 0" the other hand" ment, all of the parties knew
12 amhnd Vermont the case would ultimately be
18 nyke psyche decided at the state's highest

19 lesunecnng the bndl’ Pnlmc court. ”No trial judge has ever

ruled in favor of a same—gen-

THE FUNME53 der couple seeking to be free
Ethan Green ' 4v 5 from discrimination in mar-
DTWOF - 13

riage at [the trial court] stage
of the proceedings” said Mary
Bonauto, one of three
attorney's representing the

A  ’ ,.
Vermont Campuses
Experience Backlash

BY BARBARA Dozsros

This must be 1961 in the Deep South: slurs carved into
doors, posters announcing activist meetings burned, threaten-
ing words breathed through phone lines, symbolicart vandal-
ized. No. In fact, all this has happened in the past six months
and the locations were not the rural South, but the campuses of
several of Vermont's institutions of higher learning. The issue is
not skin color, but sexual orientation.

The incidents are not unfamiliar, but after a somewhat tran-
quil period, there appears to be a resurgence of homophobic
behavior at local colleges. Why now and what is being done
about it? .

The members of GLBTQ student groups see most of the .

homophobic incidents as reactionary. The word ‘backlash’ sur-
faces in almost every conversation about the subject. ”It is less
overt. It is not as physical. It is more of a social and emotional
harassment,” says Morgan Sheets, of Trinity College's GLBA,

pointing to the media's focus on gay rights issues as the catalyst _ s

for a new kind of torment for gays.

Ann-Elise Johnson, Publicity and Visibility Coordinator for
the GLBTA at the University of Vermont, also spoke of a rebound
effect. ”The GLBTA is getting loud. It's a spiral. There is a
homophobic reaction to the new visibility, then we react to it,
etc.” In October, the UVM organization held an open house tea.

, Many of the posters advertising the event were either burned or

collected and placed in the mail box for the women's rugby team
with a note reading ”Thought you could use some extras.” An-
other apparent reaction to that tea was graffiti carved into a door
inside the Living and‘ Learning Center: ”Drink beers, Kill
queers.” One of the Residential Advisors in the same building
received a threatening phone message around the same time.
The Director of Residential Life at UVM, Annie Stevens,‘
has instituted a new system for reacting to hate crimes. Under

this protocol, University officials hang a poster at the site of the T

’biased—related’ incident announcing that it occurred. Residents

HOMOPHOB|A,\p7

.Pasin I on the crown...

   

 

The court from "Winter is a Drag 1 «Sr 2" will step down to make room for
the Drug King and Queen of VT 1998 this Valentine's Day in The Memorial
Auditorium, Burlington [details on p23]. Above: Mark Harris ('96), Lucky
Labouche ('97), Jess Bell ('97), Tam Crismarr (’96).

4 ..
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Marriage Suit Movesgtpdsr :9 ,9
Vermont Supreme Court‘ -'  15

plaintiffs. ”Now we're one step
closer and we look forward to
engaging the Justices in a full
airing of the issues, ” said the
plaintiffsf other lawyers, Beth
Robinson and Susan Murray.
Furthermore, there was
much to celebrate in Judge
L'evitt’s opinion. The judge
embraced the case as one
which must be decided in the
courts and not simply referred
to the Legislature as the Attor-
ney General had argued. Even
more heartening was Judge
Levitt’s statement that the
plaintiffs had presented ”com-
pelling arguments” for the
freedom to marry and her con-
clusion that six of the seven
reasons the Attorney General

offered to justify discrimina-
tion against the couples were
invalid. Ultimately, however,
the links between marriage,
procreation and childrearing
persuaded Judge Levitt that
the State's discrimination in
marriage was justified. Brief-
ing of the appeal will begin
later this winter and should be
completed this spring. At that
time the court will decide how
to proceed.

The case, which was filed
on July 22, 1997, was brought
by three same—gender couples
in the Chittenden Superior
Court against the State of Ver-
mont as well as the towns of

MARRIAGE, p22

"\-I 7:" fr’ 

FEBRUARY 19981 21’; 

 

 

‘a. FREE

.3";-"*.-a.

5Hazen Union
or Failure to
P1%'tect Student

BY STEVE SToweLL

Shari Allen of Hardwick
recently filed a suit against the
Hazen Union School Board on
behalf of her daughter I-lolly
who has been harassed be-
cause Shari is a lesbian.

Holly has been threat-
ened, stalked, and harassed
since the beginning of the
school year seven times. Shari
has registered her complaints
and each time, the teachers and
administrators from the school
dismissed the claims as no big
deal stating that everyone gets
harassed at school. The last
straw for Shari was when
I-lolly accidentally brushed up
against a girl in chorus and the
student called her a lesbian,
like her mother. Shari remem-
bers the torment she went
through in school and will do
anything to make life better for
her daughter. Despite all her
actions, Shari had not received
a formal harassment report
from the school until after the
lawsuit was filed, for the sev-
enth incident in four months.
Shari and her lawyer will be
holding a presspconference in
a couple of weeks.

more forthcoming-about de-
tails at the press conference
and afterwards. Her lawyer
has advised hernot to reveal

everything at this time.)

[Author's Note: Shari will be .