',.'I—.. . .- .- J 4 . '9. \ I 9 r ....s- .. .—« -.. ~<"'.r"—.i"‘ . -«L '6'" \ -vr -In I‘\/ Saga Sage Dear Saga 85 Sage, Since moving To \/ermonT This winTer, I have Found IT diFFicuIT To meeT some— one whom I have Things in common wiTh; someone I could poTenTiaIIy be in a re|aTionship wiTh. Arcter going To "TI-IE BAR" and Trying numerous oTher social aITernaTives, I am aT my wiTs end. A Friend suggesTed ThaT I Take ouT a personal ad. I have al- ways been skepTical abouT The people who adverTise. One of‘ The reasons I haven'T done IT is because I always won- dered if‘ The Type of’ people who advertise are desperaTe. WhaT do you Think? ‘ Signed DesperaTe +§+++ Dear DesperaTe, Saga" here. Personal ads are noT ouT of’ The quesTion. buT leT's explore some oTher aITernaTives. FirsT, Try meeTing new people Through one of your inTeresTs or hob- bies. IF you ery'oy sailing, Try Taking sailing lessons aT The boaThouse This summer, or IF you enjoy hiking There are gay/les- bian hiking clubs. Second“ Try your workplace, buT use cauTion here. Re- member, we are every- wherell You are bound To meeT someone when you are doing The Things ThaT you ery'oy. Sage here. C-3eTTing back To The personal ad, I Think IT is a wln—win siTu— aTion. You really don'T have To make a commit’- menT or even meeT The people who respond To your ad IF you don'T wanT To. And if you do respond, IT sTill isn'T a commiTmenTl Even ircyou decide noT To geT inTimaTe you could creaTe a greaT Friendship in The process. DiTTo To Saga's lasT Two Thoughts! Keep sending your quesTions, we look Forward To reading Them. Be safe andheaIThyl Saga E Sage ##### ...—-—..————....—..-_.——..— ‘vararnrp-arr TX Rome contimred from page ten sexual, and transgendered Vermont- ers? . Rome: The same thing it offers all Vermonters. A return to local con- trol, freedoms, democracy, liberties, all liberties that have been taken away from us and are being taken away by Act 60, good government, good ad- ministrative government, non-waste. OITM: The Republican Party’s ' platform opposes civil rights protec- tions on the basis of sexual prefer- ence. Do you support your party’s plat- form when it comes to gay and les- bian civil rights? Home: No I don’t. I don’t ac- .cept that. I am willing ‘to embrace sexual preference. OITM: Had you been Governor would you have signed Vermont’s gay rights bill? . Rome: I’d have to read the bill. If I have a chance to read it and study it I think I can make a reasoned, mod- erate decision. OITM: The law, as passed, deals with housing, employment and public accommodations. Rome: Would I have signed that? Absolutely. I don’t have a prob- lem with any of those issues. OITM: Would you appoint openly gay men and lesbians to your cabinet I and/or state boards and commis- sions? Home: I would have no reason not to appoint them but I certainly wouldn’t appoint them because they are gay. I do believe that appointments should reflect a community’s makeup. But I also believe in merit very deeply and I don’t believe in quotas. So my appointments, on balance, would be based on merit but would take into account a reflection of the community. In fact I have employed gays and les- bians my entire forty-_year career. OITM: You’ve complained about the loss of freedom and liberty in Vermont and based your campaign Curb side on a call for smaller government. Do you believe that gay men and lesbi- ans are denied freedom by not being allowed to marry and why do you think government should make decisions about who can marry? Home: It is in the Constitution, as I understand it, that marriage is between a bride and a groom. These things are based on tradition. My ob- jection to gay marriage is that it is a change in a very strong and clear tra- dition and it’s just going further than necessary. (AT LEMT THAT'S WHAT MY B9 FRIEND SAYS ),AND I'M AupIrIaNIN5 F0 A BAND NEXT week: I'M A LITTLE ._ ‘ Nerlvous, Bur _ _ 4 -- ?! t:vr-Io? 7.? ' I WONDERING |F.. TM NOTMAD, Ros. ARE STILI. MAD YoU‘RE THE ONE AT I=.AuI oTrI_€P~- w , NATHAN. CAN'T we :Ius1 FQRGETTHE FlGHT we HAD? I CAN'T EVEN REMEM- BEP; WHAT IT wAS ABouT ANYWAY. the People is doing. But if you are ask- ing me would I oppose a movement to repeal it or to change the Constitu- tion I can't say that. I just said I want to abide by the law. And if a group of people want to get together, as I do with respect to Act 60, and change what the court found...| would not op- pose that. So if you are asking me would I oppose achange in the Con- stitution no I wouldn’t if thepeople supported it. Would I oppose the movement to do it or would I support the movement to do it is a slightly dif- ferent question. I would say that I prob- ably would not supportthe movement because it’s not a strong issue on my agenda. OITM: What initiatives would you propose to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS in Vermont? Rome: The kind of money that's involved probably has got to come from the federal government in terms of the medical research, test- ing and development. I doubt if there’s much that could be done in the medi- cal research area with Vermont’s re- sources to accomplish much.The ini- tiative would be to stay in touch with the federal government and try to get whatever resources we can get up here from the federal government. OITM: Through a voter referen- dum the residents of Maine recently repealed their gay rights law. In light of your support for citizen’s initiatives do you think this is an appropriate use of the referendum process? Rome: in this instance the ref- erendum bit you but in another in- stance the referendum was there for you to use. It’s very likely, as a matter of fact, if it was a special interest group that was active in repealing the legis- lation in Maine it probably was a spe- cial interest group that was active in instituting it in the first place. Let me go on to. the purpose of citizen’s ini- tiatives because this thing has been so distorted.When Act 60 was passed there was no conduit for our outrage. We had tremendous outrage as you might have on different issues that bother you or any special interest group has on any issue. It turned out that there was a bill in the House (H- 194) which was a citizen initiative bill. It was in favor of what is called an in- direct initiative. An indirect (initiative) is where the public votes on it and requires the legislature to take action._ Not positive action, not negative ac- tion but they must vote on it. To me this is citizen democracy and good government. I thought and still think that a citizen’s initiative is fine because it provides an opportunity for some- one to raise an issue and require the legislature to vote on it. OITM: Governor Dean cur- rently maintains a formal relationship with our community through a liaison to the GLBT community. Would you maintain this liaison relationship? Home: If I were to maintain for- mal relationships with various special interest groups I have absolutely no problem in maintaining a formal rela- tionship with your group. If we were to do that in isolation frankly I think that would be patronizing. If it turns out, which I think it probably would, that that is the way I would conduct my affairs and have relationships with spokesmen for various groups then yes I would be very pleased to have a ' liaison. OITM: Do you plan on cam- paigning at Vermont’s Gay Pride Day celebration this year? Home: We just hired a sched- uling person and she's in charge of organizing my schedule. I would have no reason not to. OITM: What final message do you have for the readers of O/TM? Home: I think it is fair to say that I have had a long term willingness to support or to be involved in groups that were strongly supporting gay rights. Ed Koch was by all means a leader in supporting gay rights and I was his treasurer. I was chairman of Mario Cuomo’s planning and transi- tion committee and there’s no ques- tion about his unyielding supportf Those are two very pronounced pub- Iic situations. I don’t think you could find an instance where I worked in opposition to gay rights or an instance where I discriminated. BY ROBERT KIRBY I WAS NEVER M AD. GOD,RoI5, wAIr'LL I TELL { 6TUFFTHAT’5 BEEN GOING ON !You'RE GONNA FREAK.’ THEN IT‘: SET- . TLEDI we've GOT t_oT5 TO I CA-I-LI-I UP oN. LIKE, VIP You KNOW THAT I- You ABOUT THE ’/ .,».'r .A' ‘~ -' 6 5H I‘ Migseb ‘(X5 THANK GOD: CALLED You WHEN 1: DID- RoB....