Out In The Montains : OP/ED - The Primaries: Why It's Important to Support Our Supporters

Summer has come and gone. Now it’s time for to think about the upcoming primary and general elections, and how their outcome will affect the GLBT community. No matter how you feel about “gay marriage,” no matter whether you support civil unions or disdain them as separate and inherently inferior to marriage, you cannot deny that the passage of the civil union law was historic. Gays and lesbians around the country are singing Vermont’s praises. Here at home, we’re seeing reactionary fallout: threatening, divisive “Take Back Vermont/ Remember in November” signs, and vicious and distorted attacks on Outright Vermont.

We’re also seeing the fallout in the number of anti-civil union candidates running for election. Many of the legislators who voted for civil unions are in danger of losing their seats. And if they do lose to anti-civil union candidates, our community will face a wrenching battle in next year’s legislature.

There will be certainly be efforts to repeal the law altogether, which, if successful, will throw into doubt the validity of all the civil unions that have already taken place. And even if they don’t succeed in repealing the law, they could succeed in watering it down by imposing a residency requirement, allowing town clerks to discriminate, or eliminating the ban on incestuous civil unions, so that the law will just be about “benefits” and not about loving, committed same-sex couples.

If anti-civil union candidates win, it will kill any and all efforts to pass civil unions or similar laws in other states. Politicians will run for cover, not wanting to suffer the same fate as the Vermont pro-civil union legislators. The entire country is watching to see what happens here.

Our community cannot let this happen. We cannot be complacent and let anti-civil union candidates take over the legislature. Every single supporter of civil unions needs to vote, both in the primary on September 12 and in the general election on November 7. The freedom to marry community (which has fought so long and hard for the right to marry, and supports civil unions as a good first step toward marriage), has formed a political action committee called Vermonter for Civil Unions, Inc., to help get people to vote.

VCU’s goal is to elect pro-civil union candidates: supporting pro-civil union incumbents, new candidates who are trying to oust anti-civil union incumbents, and pro-civil union candidates who are running in open seats. Its time, money, and energy is going into the legislative races, not the governor’s or lieutenant governor’s races.

What can you do? First, if you’re 18 or older, you can register to vote: go to the town clerk’s office in your town and fill out the form. You can register for the primary until September. 2, and you can register for the general election until October 28.

Second, vote in the primary on September 12. The following civil union supporters, in the following towns, are facing tough primary challenges and need your vote: Malcolm Severance, R-Colchester; George Cross, D-Winooski/Colchester; Tom Little, R-Shelburne; Mark Larson, D-Burlington (new North End); Al Perry, D-Bakersfield, Berkshire, Enosburg, Richford; John Edwards, R-Alburg, Swanton; Cathy Voyer and Richard Marron, R-Stowe, Morrisville, Morristown; Marion Milne, R-Tunbridge, Vershire, Washington, Williamstown, Chelsea, Orange; Bill Fyfe, R-Newport City and Town; Bob Kinsey, R-Albany, Barton, Craftsbury, Glover, Greensboro, Sheffield, Westmore, Wheelock; Carolyn Partridge and Michael Obuchowski, D-Grafton, Rockingham, Springfield, and Windham.

If these supporters lose their primary elections, it will set the tone for the general election in November. Whoever wins the primaries will have huge momentum for the general elections. Our opponents keep claiming that a “huge majority” of Vermonters oppose civil rights for gay people. We need to show them that they are wrong.

How does the primary work? Both Republicans and the Democrats are holding primaries to winnow out some of the people in their parties running for various seats around the state. If you vote in the primary, you can still vote for Progressive Party candidates or independents in the general election in November.

You don’t have to declare yourself as a Democrat or Republican to vote in the primary election. Whether you vote by absentee ballot or in person on September 12, you will receive two blank ballots, one for each party. You can choose which ballot to mark and which one to leave blank. The town clerk and voting officials will not know which party ballot you choose. In other words, even if you normally vote in one particular party, you can choose to vote on a different party’s ballot for the primary.

In some primary contests, you can vote for more than one candidate. Please vote only for civil union supporters, even if that means leaving one or more boxes blank.

Remember, you can vote by absentee ballot in the primary, any time between now and noon on September 11. You do not have to be sick or out of town to vote absentee! So if you are working or have other plans, please, call, write, or visit your town clerk’s office, and vote by absentee ballot NOW! The ballots are already available.

So, please: if you live in one of the towns listed above, please vote as soon as possible in the party primary. If you do not live in one of the towns listed above, make of list of your friends and relatives in those towns, and call them to urge them to vote, or give the list to us and we’ll call them.

Susan Murray is a Middlebury attorney and chair of Vermonters for Civil Unions. VCU can be reached at (802) 899-2930 or email us at info@vtcivilunionpac.org.