CRow’sCAws by crow cnlien Ijust got back from a con- ference of women activists on environmental issues, and I'm sad to admit I experienced cul- ture shock. Now these commit- ted gals are doing crucial work — tracking the high incidence of IHEEFBEQEQE nnnicniism major challenges to garbage- making industrialists, greedy developers, and war machine lovers (99% male, by the way) be held off by sweet women? Or is it that these women weren't really as sweet as they breast cancer in seemed and Vermont, 0l'ga- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ could be appro- nizing farmers to riatel ferocious do sustainable a arhenyneeded? agriculture, chal— Perhaps. But lenging corpora- there's a prob- tions to clean up lem. If judicious, their wastes, etc. , . diplomatic, I am so grateful grown—up,strate— these women see _ gic ferocity is themselves in In what’s needed to leadership roles save the Planet, as they head up ’ how do we train grassroots com— . . one another for mittees t0 that of Cour. the good fight. age in a totally So why did contained (let's I feel so alien- " face it) WASP ated? After all, milieu? y they used the What about word ”feminist” acknowledgment a lot, which is that some of the one of my all - first women who time favorite fervently made words (in case the connection you couldn't between violence guess.) But I no— _ _ _ _ _.. against women 2- ticed they inter- changed the word ”feminine” with ”feminist.” I noticed they kept buying into the notion they were doing this work for their children as if it's not enough to do it for themselves. I noticed they were awfully uniformly nice. Although they loved to mention how much they val- ued diversity, out of 100 people there were no women of color present, no women with dis- abilities, nor was there a genu- ine class mix that I could de- ~ tect. As for the dykes, they may have been there, but they were not the least bit identifiable; and believe me, my “gaydar” is pretty sophisticated. I just think the signals are getting weaker. And that's my point. There was a distinct lack of fire, passion, stimulating debate, or even political outrage. Most of these women were so polite it genuinely worried me. I couldn't help mulling over the difference between radicalism and liberalism. Idon’t want to polarize the issue since we had enough of that in the ’70’s, but there was no doubt about it — as a group, the environment they created felt deadly to this frustrated dyke eager to make the connection between rape of the earth and rape of women. (Words like ”rape” were totally avoided.) Mostly what I heard was eagerness not to offend. My question is, can these and ”conquer— ing” nature were radical les- bian feminists in the 1970's like Susan Griffin, Mary Daly, An- drea Dworkin. When we were teaching each other these (in my mind) universal truths we had no problem pumping each other up with the energy that was released when we found the pulse to our own liberation. Back then it was “Dykes Against Nukes” since we felt compelled to insist on visibil- ity in those save—the—earth cam- paigns. Classism, racism, ho- mophobia, and the devastation of our earth are all pieces to the not so mysterious puzzle that threatens us all. Failure to truly grapple with these issues including dealing with the discomfort and anger that arises when working through the pain, is probably a mistake. It's one thing to give lip service to em- bracing differences. It’s an- other thing to face the gut level , expression of outrage when an oppressed individual or group feels freeenough to empower themselves. Although these women undoubtedly valued dissent, how true to their women power are they if they set up an atmosphere where the voices of dissent are uncon- sciously stifled? I don't have an answer to that, and from the bottom of my heart, I wish them (I wish us all) luck. elcome to the OITM Community survey. OlTM with a number of other Vermont , groups have come up with a series of questions so we can better understand and 9 serve our community. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey and the entry blank at the bottom. We will separate the two and pick winners for the prizes on July 25th. You do not have to fill out an entry form to fill out a survey and vice versa. * All entries and information will be completely confidential. You do not have to answer every question. OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — JUNE\1998 - 21 STOP! Take 10 minutes, ; Help OITM, Help your community, and win some fabulous prizes! P V One overnight stay for 2 at Turquoise B&B in Montreal. 1 Y One overnight stay for 2 at Highlands Inn in New Hampshire. 9 B V A 1-hour Therapeutic Massage from I V Brad Highberger, L.M.T. in Stowe. V 10 Subscriptions to Circles Magazine ~ ; Z the awesome new national Lesbian magazine‘. E V One Basket of Goodies from Hummingbird Hill Enterprises. VV 2 Outright Vermont Water bottles. 8 V 2 Outright Vermont T—shirts. A 1 How do you identify: D Gay D Lesbian D Bisexual D Transgender D Heterosexual D Multisexual D Questioning D Queer D Unwilling to be labeled D Other: 2 Are you: D Male D Female. D Transgendered MTF D Transgendered FTM D Unwilling to be labeled 3 Are you open about your sexuality? D yes D no 4 What is your age? 4 Are you: D single and dating D single not dating D partnered D multiply partnered ‘D partnered and non-monoga- mous D married to a member of the same sex D married to a member of the opposite sex D other 5 Do youhave children? if yes, How many? Are your children from D a previous relationship D foster care D co-parenting D adoption D artificial insemination D other 6 if same sex marriage were legalized would you get married? Dyes D no 7 What is your income range? I D $0 —— $10,000 D $10,001 ——- $20,000 D $20,001 —- $30,000 D $30,001 — $50,000 D $50,001 — $100,000 El over $100,000 ' 8 What level of education have you completed? D Some High School D High School graduate D Some College D College Graduate D Some Post Graduate D Postgraduate D Doctorate 9 Which state or province do you live in? DVT DNH DNY DMA DPO D Other if in Vermont, what county do you live in? D Windham D Bennington D Windsor D Rutland D Orarlge D Addison D Washington D Caledonia D Essex D Orleans ' D Lamoille D Franklin D Grande Isle D Chittenden What city/town do you live in? Return this survey to: Cut In The Mountains POB 177 V Burlington, VT 05402 10 Do you consider yourself: D Atheist D Agnostic D Christian D Jewish D Buddhist D Pagan D Hindu D Muslim D Tribal D other 11 What is your racial identity? D African/Black D Asian/Pacific lslander D European/While D First Nation/Native American D Latino/a D other i 12 What party do you tend to vote with: D Democrats D Republicans D Progressives D Libertarians D Grass Roots g D other 13 Do you intend to vote in the next election? D yes D no 14 Would you use/visit/ support a GLBT community ‘center? Dyes D no 15 What do you view as being the current politi- cal/legislative priorities for our community? D Domestic partnership recogni- tion D Domestic partnership benefits D Same gender marriage D State appropriation for youth services D Medical records confidentiality D other: OVER >.