by Judith Beckett

      Prolific lesbian author and UVM alumna Lesléa Newman spoke and read some of her writing at the Waterman Building on the Burlington campus as part of the University’s “Gaypril 2003” celebration. About 120 people attended the lecture “You Can’t Be a Lesbian – You’re Jewish!” and kosher reception. Lisa Fine of UVM Hillel first contacted Newman to make the presentation, and Hillel co-sponsored it with the UVM Women’s Center and the LGBTQA Services Center.
      Dot Brauer, Coordinator of LGBTQ&A Services, introduced Newman, saying that although this is the second year that there has been a gay alumni event at UVM, it is the first time that an alumnae has made a presentation to the community.
      Newman received a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and social sciences from UVM 25 years ago. Before she spoke, a man approached her in the hall and said, “You can’t be a lesbian – you’re Jewish!” The same remark 25 years before had prompted Newman to explore the interface between Jewish identity and lesbian sexuality. Newman, relating this fresh incident, said it was discouraging how little things had changed.
      She also remembered that as a student at UVM, she had heard Rita Mae Brown read her work. She told herself then, “Someday I’m going to do that.”
      “And here I am!” she told the audience with a proud smile.
      Newman read three of her poems from her book, Signs of Love, including “Passover Poem,” because the reading occurred during Pesach, and another poem dedicated to her grandmother Ruth Levin, who died in 1989 at the age of 99. She also read two short stories from A Letter to Harvey Milk.
      Newman said that she had recently read from A Letter to Harvey Milk at a college and neither the teachers nor the students present knew who Harvey Milk was. They thought she had made him up as a character. Those present at the UVM gathering were more well versed in gay history.
      She said that the short story from A Letter to Harvey Milk has the distinction of being the only lesbian story in a Jewish anthology and the only Jewish story in a lesbian anthology. It has recently been produced as a play in Philadelphia and will soon be presented in Salt Lake City, Utah.
      Newman has received many awards for her writing. In 1997 she was awarded a Poetry Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. When she asked if they realized who she was, she learned that there had been some discussion about it. “We are not giving you the endowment for Heather has Two Mommies,” she was told. “We are giving it to you to write poetry.” Newman used the money to write the Little Butch Book. “Your tax dollars at work, folks,” she told the audience.
      “I know what kind of questions you’re going to ask, so I’ll answer them,” she said, kicking off the question and answer period. Most of the questions were about writing, rather than identity, but, she said, “Whatever you write will offend somebody.”
      Encouraging the student writers in the room, she said that her story “Sunday Afternoon,” which will be published soon in an anthology, was actually written for a class she had taken that was taught by Vermont author and UVM English Professor David Huddle.
      Newman answered questions for over an hour after the reading while the attendees enjoyed kosher refreshments.

Judith Beckett lives in Bradford.