Editorial
Guest
Editorial
A Uniquely Vermont Voice
During
my time as editor of Out In The Mountains in the mid-1990s, many
readers – from inside as well as outside Vermont – would tell
me how much the newspaper meant to them. But one reader's comment still
stands out in my memory.
I met her one year at the annual conference
of the then-named Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights. She lived
in a small, rural town in the Northeast Kingdom and traveled to the relatively
metropolitan state capital for the meeting. She told me that she was the
only gay person in her small hamlet, and living far from the state's gay
centers like Burlington, Montpelier and Brattleboro, she really did not
feel a part of the state's gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community
– except for once a month when OITM would appear in her mailbox.
"That was my connection to my community,"
she told me.
Those words guided me for the rest of my time at OITM, as well
as while I subsequently worked in the Boston-based gay press. Gays who
live in larger, more visible communities likely already enjoy a sense
of community just because of a high concentration of gay neighbors. Because
of that population density, the gay press tends to be based in those communities
and cater mostly to those larger local cities. And I'm not just speaking
of gay meccas like Boston and Providence.
Ten years ago, battling "Chitteno-centrism"
– a heavy focus on Chittenden County at the expense of the rest
of the state – was an ongoing challenge.
The paradox is that the readers who need
newspapers like OITM the most are those we in the gay press tend
to cover the least, simply because they are harder to reach, including
the rural, the semi-closeted, and many students.
Of course, much has changed over the last
decade. The Internet has brought communities together beyond geographic
borders, making virtual friends out of people who live across the country
or the globe. The online world has also made anonymity easier, allowing
many to ask questions or explore issues they wouldn't otherwise.
Beyond that, news of the gay community has
exploded into mainstream consciousness – everything from discrimination
cases and gays in the military to Vermont civil unions and Massachusetts
marriages. In fact, the battle for marriage equality hit such a fever
pitch over the past year that it became one of the biggest stories on
a daily basis for mainstream papers. So many gay readers could now get
their gay news in the Burlington Free Press, the Rutland
Herald, or the Bennington Banner, instead of waiting for
OITM.
That said, newspapers like Out In The
Mountains continue to play a vital role in tying the community together.
While a national thinker like Andrew Sullivan, for example, can be found
on CNN or in The New York Times, his is not a Vermont voice,
reflecting Vermont values and Vermont's community.
OITM does not just tie a gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender community together, it connects a Vermont community
as well. And gay Vermonters should not have to rely on national media
in order to communicate with each other. No other medium helps gay Vermonters
understand their issues and their community better than OITM.
Out In The Mountains has come a
long way over the past 20 years, starting as a small, no-money newsletter
and blossoming into a full-fledged newspaper with a board and a budget.
OITM can and should continue to grow over the next two decades
and beyond, continuing to inform, educate and reflect Vermont's unique
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
Fred Kuhr
Editor At Large
In Newsweekly