Communtiy Compass
Community Compass
Community Compass is a service of OITM. GLBT organizations from around the state are invited to provide briet — 200 words or less — descriptions of recent or upcoming activities and events. Send your submissions to us by email by the 15th of the month.
Brattleboro Area AIDS Project
AIDS Walk for Life - 2000 Brattleboro Area AIDS Project’s major community event, will be held on Saturday, June 10th on the Brattleboro Town Common.
As the 13th annual AIDS Walk for Life, this year’s theme speaks for the history of the Project: Because of You - our friends, our family, our community - We’re In It For The Long Haul. It brings together many aspects of the Project’s philosophy - caring, understanding, honoring, cherishing, and remembering.
Walkers are asked to gather pledges in support of the Brattleboro Area AIDS Project. Pledge sheets are available for anyone at the Project office at 67 Main Street or by calling us. All funds raised by the AIDS Walk for Life help reduce the impact of AIDS in the community by providing direct services to people with HIV/AIDS and through a wide variety of education and prevention services.
This year the AIDS Walk for Life invites community members to come together to remember friends who have passed away and to celebrate the many people who live with HIV/AIDS. Be part of this event by collecting pledges and walking, by sponsoring a walker, or by joining in on Saturday morning. Contact information appears in HealthSource.
Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society
Keith Kron, Director of the UUA Office of GLBT concerns, will be spending the weekend of June 9-11 in Middlebury, facilitating workshops, conducting the worship service, and meeting with GLBT Unitarian Universalists.
On Sunday, June 11, at 10am, everyone is invited to join us for his service: The Van Gogh Cafe: How to work to end oppression and how to create the magic that will do it.
On Saturday, June 10, you are invited to attend one or both of our free workshops at CVUUS at Cross & Water Streets in Middlebury:
“The Rough Road to Civil Unions” (10am-noon): Where has the struggle to secure the freedom to marry for same gender couples taken us, individually and collectively? How has the enormous outpouring of hate and prejudice affected you? How have you participated in and experienced the broad, deeply personal, yet public, support for gay marriage? In this workshop, we will reflect on what happened for each of us, personally, emotionally and/or spiritually. Bring your stories, experience, hopes and fears.
“How Same-Gender Relationships Really Work” (1-3pm): So you have found Ms. Wonderful. She makes your heart sing and you wear the same size Birkenstocks. But why won’t she balance her checkbook or make the bed after getting up? Or maybe you keep hoping that someday your prince will come ö and he’ll be able to fix breakfast in bed for you and have a high tolerance for sheepdog hair.
This highly participatory and interactive workshop will look at what makes same-gender relationships work and what you can do to improve the odds that yours will work well too - whether you are in one or not.
GLBT Parenting Group
Saturday, May 6, will be the first informal meeting for anyone who is interested in forming a GLBT parenting group at Oakledge Park in Burlington. Plan on being there around 11am, and we can stay as long as there is interest! Please bring yourself, your kids (or your aspirations if you don’t have a family yet but are thinking about it), your sense of humor, and a picnic lunch. There will be a rainbow flag at the table where we will set up initially so we can meet and talk. Come celebrate our families, and help our children find out they are not alone!
Please contact Sarah at (802) 338-4653 with any questions or for directions to Oakledge. Looking forward to seeing all of you there!
Mountain Pride Media
Mountain Pride Media invites you to join us at the May stop of our Green Mountain Tour. The Tour is heading into Lamoille County on Saturday, May 6, for a stop at the offices of Concept II in Morrisville.
We’ll start the afternoon with a writing workshop from 1-3pm, led by Barbara Dozetos, editor of Out in the Mountains; if you’re looking for tips or advice on creating effective news releases, letters to the editor, or other communications, this is the place to be.
Then at 4pm, members of the Mountain Pride Media Board of Directors will host a community reception, at which we welcome your input on the paper, our Web site, and other community services we provide. We also welcome your new ideas about services we might develop in support of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Vermonters.
On June 11, the Green Mountain Tour heads south into Windham County. Make plans today to join us in Guilford!
MPM would like to thank Doug Graver and Richard Jenkins for their help getting the April issue of OITM ready for distribution. All are invited to attend our next distribution at our Richmond office (Bridge Street, above the Daily Bread) on April 27 - we usually start just before 6pm and finish up around 8pm.
Samara Foundation of Vermont
For the first time, Samara will be awarding three $500 scholarships this year to students who can demonstrate, through their personal experiences and/or public commitment, a dedication to the interests of the GLBTQ community. Applications must be postmarked by May 12, 2000, to be considered. The application forms can be downloaded from www.samarafoundation.org/samara2.htm. Samara is hoping to announce the recipients on Pride Day.
The first three workshops in the Gill Foundation series on fundraising for GLBT and ally non-profit organizations have been scheduled for May 20 (in Burlington), June 3 (in Montpelier), and June 15 (in Burlington). Although all three workshops will be facilitated by professional trainers, Samara is particularly excited that the June 3 workshop entitled “Ask People for Money Face to Face” will be led by nationally known activist Donna Red Wing. Check the calendar for more details!
Vt Freedom to Marry
Vermont Freedom to Marry Action Committee has worked hard on grassroots lobbying efforts the last couple of months. It has been very exciting to witness how people have become active on this issue, turning out for hearings, House and Senate floor debates, and forums; writing letters; making phone calls. Every voice lifted in support of marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples has had a significant and lasting impact on the status of civil rights for gay and lesbian citizens. Thanks to every single person who was active in any way on the marriage/civil union issue!
This winter and spring, we have seen just how deeply misunderstanding and fear of gay and lesbian people extend in our state. But we have also seen over and over again how hearing the experiences of gay and lesbian friends and neighbors opens hearts and changes minds. Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force will be continuing the educational work. There are still many volunteer opportunities. Contact information appears in the Source.