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Looking Back, Looking Forward
Looking Back, Looking
Forward
by Euan Bear
It
was 1986, February, the month when love is celebrated with pictures of
celestial arrows piercing the heart. A little typewritten and mimeographed
(for those born after 1970, that's outdated duplicating technology, pre-dates
photocopying) and folded newsletter began showing up in mailboxes and
on doorsteps in Vermont. Its banner was purple, of course: Out in the
Mountains, Vol. 1, No. 1, with a photo of then-Rep, Micque Glitman on
the cover. Glitman had sponsored a bill prohibiting discrimination in
housing and employment against people testing positive for the AIDS virus
(then called HTLV-3).
Governor Madeleine Kunin met with
a group of lesbians and gay men after "'misunderstandings' around
the governor's failure to issue a statement for the 1985 Lesbian/Gay Pride
event." One of their requests was that she appoint a gay man and
a lesbian as our community's "liaisons" to her office. She was
receptive to the idea.
Lesbians and gay men were slated to caucus separately to nominate liaisons
to the governor's office and to consider "the challenges of lesbians
and gay men working together." Vermonters for Lesbian and Gay Rights
(VLGR) was in evidence.
Peggy Luhrs wrote a lengthy piece
on "Breaking the Taboo against Women Loving Women." David Curtis
wrote on the lack of civil rights protections. Terje Anderson reviewed
AIDS in the Mind of America by Dennis Altman.
Phyllis Schlafly ("radical right wing
leader") was to debate Sarah Weddington ("prominent women’s
rights advocate") at Patrick Gym on the 17th – admission $2.00
for the public, $1.00 for students.
Yours truly contributed an article
I had written for the Vanguard Press, predecessor to Seven
Days, on the suicide of Harvey Milk's assassin, Dan White, and the
lesser charges and light sentences the criminal justice system awarded
to assailants and murderers using the "gay panic" defense.
Flash forward 10 years. It's February
1995. There's an identified editor, Fred Kuhr. The publication is still
typing-paper-sized, but with the very next issue will move to tabloid-sized
newsprint. The front page features Bill Lippert's photo to accompany Paul
Olsen's analysis of the recently concluded state elections.
Writer Cleland Selby profiled openly
gay Human Rights Commissioner Jim Morgan and solicited the community's
support for his re-appointment when his term expired in July.
There's a brief report on a lesbian custody
case in NH where the non-biological parent is suing for visitation of
the child the ex-partners agreed to have together.
And editor Fred Kuhr carried on his
own pro- and anti-gay marriage debate, concluding, "The government
and the law have an moral obligation to recognize us, our relationships,
and our families. ... And if a difference does exist between same sex
and variant sex couples, the difference is that we can do it better."
There were ads: Onion River Co-op, the Peace
& Justice Center, Jackie Marino (real estate), Walter Zeichner (psychotherapy
& bodywork), Pearls (now 135 Pearl), VGSA, among many others who still
support OITM by buying space in the paper.
VCLGR (a "Coalition" now),
successor to VLGR, held three statewide meetings via interactive television,
according to the insert packaged with the paper.
That year, the 10th year celebration
came in the March issue, with the new tabloid newsprint format.
In 1995, Howard Dean pushed for an
adoption bill that did not prohibit gay men and lesbians from adopting
children. The battle at the Rutland Public Library over Daddy's Roommate
was resolved after Director Paula Baker received public support for her
solid stand against censorship and "special placement."
Comics included DTWOF, The Mostly
Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Greene, and Murphy's Manor.
Then-Republican Senator James Jeffords
introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and Pride Day
organizers first invited then snubbed Republican Lt. Governor Barbara
Snelling as a speaker.
OITM still had no board of
directors, it was entirely volunteer (not even a stipend for the editor),
and still managed to do a credible job of covering our community and the
issues we were concerned with around the state.
So, adoption, child visitation rights,
marriage, politics, careers, comics, HIV/AIDS, organization shuffles.
Sounds pretty familiar. ENDA is still not the law of the land, and we'd
probably welcome Barbara Snelling-style Republicans these days, given
the right-wing rabidity of too many of the current crop nationally.
But let's look ahead. Where will we
be in 2015? In 2025? Will we exist as a discrete community with our own
politics, gossip, cartoons, books, and movies? Will Gay Studies be relegated
to History Department classes? Will there still be a gay 'lifestyle' in
10 years? In 20?
I suspect so. But the 'paper' might
be an entirely online product, more like a portal linking readers to local
and national and global blogs and websites, perhaps with an independent
reviewer updating subscribers on the hottest, weirdest, queerest sites.
Or if the rightwing crackdown gets
worse, we'll return to print-only publication on outdated technology,
small samizdat-style pages passed secretly from hand to hand. There might
be online versions, sent via dummy accounts or projected by web cameras
on walls or light-sensitive paper. The old July 2004 issue might be a
coveted, rare artifact, with its bold blazing color and proclamation of
equality and solidarity. Or the new Lesbian Avengers and the Mariposa
Posse (gay "butterflies") will do hit-and-run installations
of queer guerilla art in holograms in public squares.
It's true – it's much easier
to imagine a future of oppression than one of freedom. We know what oppression
feels like, but we don't really know the fullness of freedom in an abundance
of equality. Perhaps another generation
will make the difference because of what we do here and now. Perhaps another
generation can dream bigger.
What will the future be? It's largely
up to you, to all of us. Write us with your dreams for the next 10 or
20 years.
Euan Bear is beginning her fourth year as editor of OITM.