by Paul Olsen

       BURLINGTON - The political spectrum is well represented in the race to replace independent Rep. Bernie Sanders in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrat state Senator Peter Welch is on the left, Republican Martha Rainville is in the middle, and the other Republican, state Senator Mark Shepard, is on the right. Rainville and Shepard will face off in the GOP primary on September 12th. The winner of that contest will face Peter Welch in November.
       Senator Peter Welch (Windsor County) currently serves as Vermont’s Senate President Pro Tem. Welch, an attorney, said gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Vermonters should support his candidacy due to his record as a “strong and consistent supporter of equal rights.”
       If elected to serve as Vermont’s only representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, Welch promises to fight for gay and lesbian equality. He said he opposes the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment and would cosponsor the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), the Uniting American Families Act, and the Domestic Partner Health Benefits Equity Act. ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation nationwide, while the Uniting American Families Act would treat same-sex partners as married spouses for purposes of immigration law. TheDomestic Partner Health Benefits Equity Act eliminates taxation of domestic partner health insurance benefits.
       “Here in Vermont we passed the civil unions law and partners are treated the same,” Welch told Out in the Mountains. “The federal government should recognize what states do and not have discriminatory practices. My approach would be to strike down those barriers as the result of federal legislation.”
       Welch also said he supports repeal of the military’s antigay “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. “I favor legislation that provides equal treatment under the law for all people,” he said. “I disagree with ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ My view is that there should be no discrimination.”
        Republican Martha Rainville is the former Adjutant General of Vermont’s National Guard. This is her first bid for elective office. As a self-described moderate, Rainville’s positions on gay and lesbian equality are, well, somewhere in the middle. She supports civil unions and opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment because she doesn’t think “it is appropriate for the federal government to be involved in that issue.” She “supports the concept” of ENDA but needs to review the bill before committing to voting for it.
         “To me what’s important is what a person brings to the job,” Rainville said in an interview with OITM. “Their sexual orientation is not important. It’s their performance, their character, and their contributions.”
       Rainville favors a review of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
       “We need to look at repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and look at what policy we need to put in place,” she said. “As a commander with 27 years in the military, what I look for in a soldier or airman is someone who is dedicated to serving and who brings their focus and attention to the job and that’s it. That’s what we ought to base our military policy on and how we ought to assess people.
       The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy is problematic. It puts military members in a situation of being in a profession where they demand integrity, honor and trustworthiness, yet with the policy we are asking them to not be honest and act with honor. I think it is a policy that is unfair to the military and unfair to the profession.”
       Welch and Rainville differ on their view of Governor Jim Douglas’ (R) recent veto of legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression in Vermont. Welch voted for the bill and says Douglas was wrong. Rainville defended Douglas.
       “I don’t think he was wrong because from what I understand there were legal wording issues contributing to vetoing it,” she said.
     As a conservative Republican who does not support GLBT equality, state Sen. Mark Shepard (R-Bennington County) is on the right side of the political spectrum.
      Although Shepard’s website says he’s committed to “making a better world for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren,” his commitment to families does not include gay and lesbian families. In fact, Shepard introduced an amendment to the Vermont Constitution that says “marriage in this State shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.” His amendment failed.
      In an interview with the blog Vermont Daily Briefing, Shepard dismissed the fight for marriage equality.
      “This is not a civil rights issue,” Shepard said. “The courts have said that. The Supreme Court did. I think it was a case in Georgia, many years ago. In order to be civil rights, there’s four criteria: one is you have to be economically deprived; politically deprived; educationally deprived - and all three of those, this particular group (homosexuals) is well ahead of the norm. Okay? The last criteria was something - you had to have a characteristic that was physically unchangeable. Well, you have thousands of people who were gay that are no longer, by their own testimony. What do you do with that? So clearly the issue doesn’t meet any of the four criteria. It is not a civil rights issue.”
        Vermonters will decide where they fall on the political spectrum on election day.

Paul Olsen is the Vermont correspondent for Boston's in newsweekly.