Two-dozen hardy souls representing a dozenqueer organizations met for the fourth Queer Summit on a sunny Green-UpSaturday in May. The State House location in Montpelier was a step upfrom the site of the first Summit meeting a year ago at the Burlingtonsewage plant.
      In many ways,Summits are another meet-and-greet, not so different from Chamber ofCommerce mixers, though probably more structured and virtually allnonprofit. We spend the first 90 minutes introducing ourselves andgiving brief (in some cases, not-so-brief) updates on ourorganizations’ activities and concerns. This Summit also offered alegislative update, a primer on trans issues and approaches, and anupdate/brainstorming session on the Vermont Unity Project. What followsare highlights and news bits from the gathering.

TheLegislature: Lippert Urges Queer Support for Anti-Racism Bill

      Representative Bill Lippert(D-Hinesburg) acted as host and declared that because of the lastlegislative election, the feeling in the State House is “muchbetter” than last year. “Seven new Democrats were elected tothe House and one new Progressive. It has changed the whole tone of thediscussions. We no longer have an atmosphere in which free rein is givento the airing of anti-gay material within this building,” herejoiced.
      Lobbyist and Equality Vermontrepresentative Virginia Renfrew took a more pessimistic view: “TheSpeaker of the House [Walter Freed, R-Dorset] has 30 far-right partymembers whom he has been trying to keep quiet so he can portray theparty as more moderate than it is. He has been trying not to havedebates on the floor so these members won’t show just how extremethe Republican Party has become.”
      In his “legislative update”presentation, Lippert clarified that “while the tone has changed,the leadership has not. The chairperson of the House Judiciary Committee[Peg Flory, R-Pittsford] announced, ‘This committee is not going todeal with social issues this year.’ Who is in charge is who setsthe agenda. Frankly, I want to set the agenda.”
      Lippert and Renfrew mentioned three bills ofimportance to the queer community: H.113, focused on racism andharassment in schools; H.0111/S.0076, medical marijuana, passed by theSenate 22-7, bottled up in the House Health and Welfare Committee,unlikely to pass this year; and H.366, adding gender identity to theanti-discrimination law, also unlikely to pass this year.
      Lippert and R.U.1.2?’s Kaufman urged thequeer community to support H.113, because racism hurts everyone, andcombating race-based harassment can only help our community. Renfrewnoted that every harassment bill passed has contained a mandate fortraining for teachers and administrators, “but they keep takingthat part out.”
      “Thetestimony we’ve heard on this bill has been justheartbreaking,” said Lippert. “Supporting this bill is theright thing to do. As this bill moves forward, we move forward.It’s time for us as a community to make this a strongalliance.”

Community Groups: Fundraising andVolunteers

      The searchfor volunteers and board members was a recurring theme. Most of ourorganizations are nonprofits governed by boards of directors. All ofthem need a continuous stream of volunteers to keep their organizationsrunning.
      Among the attendees were tworepresentatives of the Barony of All Vermont, a chapter of thenationwide “court” system that attracts a high percentage ofgay and lesbian participants among its cross-dressers and drag kings andqueens. “I’ve never seen so much that sparkles in oneplace,” joked Samara Foundation Executive Director Bill Lippert,referring to the Barony’s benefit performance for the foundation.Like more traditional “fraternal” organizations, theBarony’s focus is on having fun while raising funds to benefitcommunity organizations ranging from various food shelves to MountainPride Media.
      New attendeesincluded members of two student organizations: Free to BeGLBTQA from the University of Vermont (organizers of the recent“Translating Identity” conference), and One in Ten fromCastleton State College, west of Rutland. Also new to the Summits wasDot Brauer, representing the LGBTQA Services Office of the CulturalDiversity Center at UVM, which has been working hard to make theuniversity a more welcoming place for transgender students, faculty, andstaff. Her office has also begun supporting a new lgbtqa alumniassociation.
      R.U.1.2?Community Center Executive Director Christopher Kaufman andAmericorps-Vista worker Khristian Kemp-Delisser announced that thecommunity center’s recent silent auction and fund-raising dinnerwas such a success that people were turned away, even though theRadisson is the largest banquet venue in town (barring the cavernousSheraton). There was a joking reference to “next year at ShelburneFarms” with a quick retraction as eyebrows rose all across theroom.
      Besides acting as organizers ofthe Queer Summits, the center is focusing on antiracism work,collaborating with the Juneteenth-Stonewall Commemoration Committee(which includes the Women of Color Alliance, Outright, Pride Vermont,RU12, VARAT, CEDO, and SafeSpace) for a June 21 showing of BrotherOutsider, a film on the life of gay black civil rights organizerBayard Rustin. Juneteenth is the celebration of the date on which thelast American slaves – and their owners – in Galveston, Texas,were finally notified that slavery had been outlawed and that slaveswere now free. It was June 19th, 1865, more than two years after theEmancipation Proclamation.
     Kaufmannoted that the event has required some groups to “go outside theircomfort zones” in dealing with racism and homophobia. The localJuneteenth Committee, headed by Shirley Boyd Hill, has declined tocosponsor the June 21 event, and has scheduled its official JuneteenthCommemoration for the same day.
      Kemp-DeLisser, coordinator of the center’spopular education programs, is coming to the end of his year ofgovernment-subsidized poverty wages in August, and both the Center andSafeSpace are looking for new Americorps-Vista workers.
      R.U.1.2? board member Peter Braun announced thatthe community center board would be down to 2 members in Septemberunless new volunteers step forward to join.
      Beth Robinson was there to representVermonters for Civil Unions and all its related legislativemonitoring and fundraising entities, as well as to discuss approaches toachieving legal protections for transfolk in Vermont.
      Equality Vermont’s Virginia Renfrewannounced that the Diversity Resources Guide for Vermont (co-produced byEquality Vermont, LEAD International, and the Vermont Human RightsCommission) is available online through LEAD International (www.leadintl.org).Keith Goslant, she reported, had been appointed to the Governor’sCommission on Equity and Workplace Diversity (formerly theGovernor’s Commission on Affirmative Action).
      The Samara Foundation is awarding three$1,000 scholarships to activist youth this year and hosted a nationalgathering of lesbian and gay funding organizations.
      David Morrill reported that VT M4M, anonline HIV prevention effort, has identified over 160 transgender andcross-dressing individuals in Vermont, pointing to a need for a transchatroom. He also represented the Chronic Conditions InformationNetwork, which provides information on a number of chronicconditions, including AIDS and diabetes.
      Brian Cina represented Pride Vermont, theorganizers of Vermont’s annual June Pride celebration for gay,lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and allied Vermonters.The committee is facing several challenges this year and beyond (see News story).
      Roland Palmer and Dan Brink were cautiouslyenthusiastic about Mountain Pride Media’s position, whilealso noting a need for volunteers, board members, and funds. MPM hasheld a spring raffle, sponsored a performance by Lost Nation Theater ofLillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, and has anupcoming “Eat Out” benefit at The Waiting Room restaurant inBurlington on June 10.
      Paij WadleyBailey was both facilitating the meeting and representing the VermontAnti-Racism Action Team (VARAT; see the May, 2003 edition ofOITM, page 6). She said that some schools refuse to have thegroup link different discrimination issues, such as racism andhomophobia, and that the group has been dis-invited once so far. It isworking on training volunteers for its hotline at1-866-Yracism.
      The VermontDiversity Health Project and Outright Vermont were bothrepresented by Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak. The Health Project is the groupbehind the booklet Our Bodies, Our Minds, a directory of gay andlesbian-friendly mental and physical health practitioners. The group ismoving toward holding trainings for health providers to understand whatthey need to know to ask the right questions of their queer clients andpatients.
     Outright sponsored last month’sYouth Pride (see News story)celebration and is currently working on a project called OVX – OurVoices Exposed, youth action against tobacco marketing to kids. Queerkids are at much higher risk of becoming addicted to tobacco. There arealso outreach projects in Montpelier and Barre andBrattleboro.
      Kara DeLeonardisannounced that SafeSpace was observing its first full year as anindependent agency helping lgbtq victims of sexual assault, domesticviolence, hate crimes and discrimination. March was the most activemonth they’ve had so far, with 13 clients, compared to the usualtwo-to-six clients per month – a statistic of mixed significance:it’s good that more people are seeking help and know aboutSafeSpace, not good that we’re experiencing that much violence.SafeSpace plans to hold workshops for community members in addition tothe trainings they usually do for advocates and educators. TonyBarreto-Neto also attended the meeting as a new SafeSpace boardmember.
      Faerie Camp Destiny wasrepresented by the Faerie Pippin, aka Christopher Kaufman. The Faeriesfinally received their Act 250 permit to improve their campsite inGrafton, lengthening the access road and constructing a kitchen and abath house, once they’ve raised $30,000. Vandalism has been aproblem and the group is very concerned with the possibility of violencefrom neighbors against people on the property.

GenderIdentity: Oppression, Education, Legislation, Litigation

     Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak, Beth Robinson,Bill Lippert, and Virginia Renfrew presented a mini-workshop on genderidentity.
      Three states – Minnesota,Rhode Island, and New Mexico – nine counties and 48 citiescurrently have nondiscrimination laws that include gender identityand/or expression. Bill Lippert, the lead sponsor of H.366, and BethRobinson discussed interpretations of existing anti-discrimination lawthat might include gender identity under either sex or sexualorientation and whether there’s a need to add specific terminologyto educate the public that trans-discrimination is illegal.
      Robinson said that there are “multiplepillars of social change,” including “education, legislation,and litigation.” She suggested that there are “ways to arguethat gender identity is already covered in existing law,” butgranted that there is an educational value to naming gender identity asa protected status. She credited GLAD attorney Jennifer Levi with takingthe lead on gender identity litigation in New England.
      In a later clarification, she explained,“Transgendered victims of discrimination have successfully reliedon laws prohibiting sex discrimination and disability discrimination,and some transgendered people may experience discrimination becausethey're perceived to be gay, regardless of whether they are.” Sheacknowledged that “all of these legal arguments have theirlimitations.”
      Using sexdiscrimination laws has been successful in court in certain cases, shesaid, even though some early lower court rulings in favor of thatinterpretation were overturned on appeal. Robinson later cited Maine,Massachusetts and Connecticut as states where lawsuits involvingtransgender discrimination were decided favorably based on sexualdiscrimination.
      Using disabilitydiscrimination laws for gender identity protection may be difficultbecause of a specific exception saying that the Americans withDisabilities Act does not apply to transsexuals. In a later email,Robinson explained that some states have their own disabilitynondiscrimination laws that do not exclude transsexuals, and that inthose states there have been positive outcomes for transgender folkusing disability law.
      A third approachis based on transgender folk being protected under sexual orientationnondiscrimination provisions. Transgender people are often perceived asgay, and many laws would cover transfolk under that perception,regardless of the reality that not all transfolk are gay orlesbian.
      “It’s important totalk openly about discrimination, to hear the real stories of realpeople,” Robinson concluded.
      A transgender participant who did not want to beidentified related a history of discrimination within Vermont that hashad a severe effect on the person’s life: “The worst part ofdiscrimination is what it does to people. I turned it on myself; Ithought I was a bad person... Bigotry and hatred are immobilizing. Youhave no self-esteem, you have nothing left.”
      A number of representatives talked about whatthey were doing to make their organizations trans-friendly, and much ofthat effort focused on gender-neutral labeling of single-seat bathrooms.“Transfolk are just trying to stay alive out here. Bathrooms are sofar beyond what we need right away,” said the anonymous transgenderparticipant, who cited isolation as the most difficult issue facingtransgender Vermonters. “Where are you? Where’s theoutreach?”
      Kara DeLeonardisreported that a quarter to a third of the monthly callers to SafeSpaceidentify themselves as transgender individuals who have experiencedbias-related incidents.
      Other effortsincluded networking with organizations, finding ways to use innovativeand inclusive curricula at the elementary school level, educatingadministrators and teachers, sponsoring “trans nights” fortransfolk and their partners and allies, adding classes to college anduniversity offerings, and training social and medical serviceproviders.

Vermont Unity Project: Big Money for OurGroups

     Bennett Law and BillLippert announced that the Vermont Unity Project has raised more thanhalf the money it needs to be eligible for a $100,000 match fromnational funders. The project has raised $128,000 on its way to $200,000in new money for the gay and lesbian community.
      “This is big money,” Law said.“What do we do with this money, and how do we decide who it goesto?”
      The national funding consortiumis prepared to release the first half of the matching funds, making atotal of $178,000. Of that amount, $25,000 will be set aside for afuture endowment. When the project reaches its goal, another $25,000will go into the endowment. Another $10,000 will be given to the VermontCommunity Fund for administrative expenses.
     Several of the attendees suggested that the funds shouldbe invested in real estate, a building in which many of our groups couldshare office space or at least hold meetings. Other suggestions included“infrastructure,” rural outreach, satellite offices, andmobile staffs. The funds should go into something that’s“sustainable,” because it’s a one-shot deal.
      No one had specific suggestions to make regardingthe “how do we decide” process, except that it should beinclusive and have some relation to the needs assessment the UnityProject Advisory Board has conducted.
      We’ve got a long way to go from here, moremountains to climb, but most of the delegates said they felt empowered,or encouraged, or at least more connected and hopeful than when theycame in the door.