Special
Rep. Bill Lippert's Remarks
from March 15, 2000
Vermonter's Appreciate
Rep. Bill Lippert
From
VTPRIDENET
Vermonters Appreciate
Rep. Bill Lippert
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I would like to take a moment to support and underscore, if I may, what Howdy Russell said at Weds. night’s candlelight vigil regarding Rep. Bill Lippert: that our community owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to him for his work in this civil rights battle. I agree with Howdy.
Bill Lippert has skillfully and courageously played an important role as Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary committee, and as Vermont’s only openly gay legislator. Bill has earned the respect of many Hinesburg residents, as was demonstrated by the majority of attendants at Hinesburg’s Town Meeting this year who rose to their feet in applause in response to his statement regarding his work and experiences with the same-sex marriage issue. I believe Bill has also earned the same respect among most of his colleagues in the Vermont legislature. Bill Lippert has clearly made a significant and positive difference in the legislative portion of this battle. Would we have come this far in the legislature without at least 1 openly gay legislator to represent us as well and as eloquently as Bill Lippert has?
This experience has taught me that I should never believe, or subscribe to any notion, that one vote can’t make a difference, or that involvement in a small, hometown political campaign can’t make a difference or help in some way to change our world. After such a close vote last night, and following such a moving speech by Bill during the debate on Wednesday evening and everything else he has done, I shudder to think of where we might be today if Bill had lost the last Hinesburg election to his well-known republican opponent.
It is critically important that we all be involved in the political process, in elections and campaigns. Our votes do matter. Our involvement, no matter how small, makes a difference. Just a few hundred votes the other way in the small town of Hinesburg back in Nov. 1998, and… who knows?
I, too, would like to express deep appreciation for Bill Lippert and the manner with which he conducted himself during months of verbal abuse. He and our community should be proud of the way we stood and took the wrath of bigotry and immature behavior of the other side, and refused to stoop to their level of meanness. I believe this strengthened our cause.
Specifically, I would like to commend Bill for his comments in the past couple of days on the issue of AIDS. When we thought the other side could go no lower, they did. Thank you for reminding everyone that this is not “our” disease – it belongs to everyone. As it struck our population early and hard, we rose to the occasion, out of necessity, to save our own lives and those of our brothers and sisters. Now that other populations are seeing the greatest increases in infection, our early work is assisting them. Thank God that gays and lesbians were strong and caring enough early on to recognize the virus for what it was and jump in and do the work that needed to be done. Some straight men could take a lesson from gay men when they consider what it means to really be “strong” – to watch your friends and lovers die, one after another, take the abuse of those without compassion, get up again the next day and go back into the trenches, and still remember how to laugh every once in awhile. We all need to pat ourselves on the back today and be good to ourselves!!