On the Bus with Stan Baker

 

BY SENATOR ELIZABETH
READY

How she sat there,

the time right inside
place ’

so wrong it was ready. '
From Rosa by Rita Dove

These words describe
the historic ride of Rosa
Parks the day she refused to
yield her seat to a white
person. It was a simple act.
She wouldn’t get up. Not
because she was radical,
but because she was tired.
Rosa Parks had enough of
what was wrong-minded. It
was time for a change.

Stan Baker is one" of the
plaintiffs who petitioned
for equal rights under the
Vermont Constitution. He
is my friend and neighbor. I
first met Stan when he and
his wife, Priscilla, ran a lit-
tle school on the banks of
the Otter Creek. There, my
oldest son, Ethan, learned
to read and write.

The time came recently

that I was in a special seat
at a special time. I voted for
H.847, the bill on civil
unions. Now Stan and his
partner, Peter, will be treat-
ed with the same decency
and respect that Stan has
always shown to my family
and me.

I have learned so much
in coming to this vote, and
I am grateful to all the
Vermonters who called and
wrote. I learned how fer-
vent people are about their
religion, their marriages,
and their families. I learned
the power of bigotry, my
own and that of others. I
learned that prejudice is
terrifying like darkness.
And in every person, there
is the capacity for kindness.
I learned that the issue of
civil unions has very little
to do with gay rights and
marriage and everything to
do with overcoming a basic
human fear of peoplelwho
are unfamiliar, “other.” I
learned how we are terri-
fied of those-who look or

act or 1-ive differently, how
we want to change them or
hate them, or at least refuse
to see. I learned how each
of us is different — one way
or the other — and we all
know the pain of being sep-
arate the same way we
know the beating of our
hearts.

Throughout this debate,
I have stood in the shoes of
our gay and lesbian neigh-
bors, learned their children
are laughed at, their proper-
ty vandalized, their lives
threatened. I have learned
that they experience hate
and separation, because of
whom they love.

This hatred is like awak-
ening in a storm to feel the
fear, hear the awful night
singing. And so, because
we have stood in their

place, we have drawn ,,

together with them, as if to
build a fire, to kindle a
response. We have written
this bill and approved our
work. We havesaid “no
more” to the separation and

June 2000 I Out in the Mountains [11

to creating “the other,” not
because we are so strong
and good, but because it is
what we must do for our-
selves, for our children, and
for the future. Vermont is
our home, Stan and Peter
our neighbors. The time is
right inside a place that is
ready. V

Elizabeth Ready is a
Democratic state senator
from Addison County.

-—= opinion :-

 

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