News
-- Announcements About OITM Closure
-- Responses to OITM Closure
Your Reflections About OITM
We invite
you to share your memories and tributes with us at voices [at] mountainpridemedia
[dot] org, and we'll share them with others here.
From: Tom Aloisi
Hello to everyone back home in Vermont!
It's with great sadness that I am learning about the demise of OITM. I did some writing off and on for the paper throughout the 90's while Deb, Fred, Hugh, Chris, and Barb were at the helm! I remember a big issue in the early 1990s was the "controversy" of whether or not to insist that all writers used their last names! I think my biggest project on the paper was my interview with newly re-elected Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle in 1993, shortly after the city started providing domestic partner benefits. Apparently in those days, this was a controversial move, and I remember sitting in many city council meetings listening to the debate for and against providing domestic partner benefits. This was the one big issue in that year's mayoral campaign, but Clavelle stood fast with supporting equality, despite the political risk. My, how far we've come!
As a young-ish gay man living in Vermont in the early 90's I remember that excited feeling every time a new issue of OITM would come out, and I would read it form cover to cover. These days, with constant contact and news via the internet, that thrill is gone, and I only occasionally read the weekly GLBT newspapers here in Washington, DC. Chances are that someone has already emailed me all the important news of the day, or even the hour! (FYI: I left Boston for Washington in the fall of 2006!)
There's something to be said for the feel and energy of a monthly all-volunteer newspaper. Those were definitely simpler times, although none of us seemed to realize that at the time! OITM will definitely remain in my heart forever.
From: Hugh Coyle
former editor -- two terms, at that
It certainly is sad news, especially given the strength of support MPM
and OITM have had over these many years. It is, as they say, the end of
an era.
I think it's worth asking just what
that era was, too... There have been so many changes on so many fronts
since OITM first came out. One generation after another has stepped out
of the closet in Vermont, and each one has found the world steadily improving.
We always envisioned a world in which publications like OITM would be
unnecessary. Years ago, few if any media outlets dared print words like
"gay," "lesbian," or "transgendered" in
their publications. Politicians avoided statements of any kind on the
subject, whether it was hate crimes legislation or AIDS awareness. Any
kind of public debate over gay marriage seemed unthinkable. For many Vermonters,
OITM was the ONLY place to share our stories and find information about
so many things, from political rallies to social groups to treatment centers.
Make no mistake: without OITM, many of the glbtq groups in existence today
would have faltered and failed in their first few months. OITM may be
disappearing into the sunset, but its legacy is as strong as anything
the original founders of OITM could have hoped for.
Today, there are so many options for
glbtq folks to find and connect
with one another, from the social groups that continue to meet in coffee
shops around the state to the high school and college students who connect
with one another on the Web using Facebook and MySpace. The fear of social
and political persecution has lessened
considerably, and though it's not yet completely eradicated from our
culture, it has less and less effect on our personal freedom. All of that
makes me happy. It shows that OITM is hardly giving up in defeat. Rather,
it is recognizing victory and moving on.
OITM leaves Vermont, and the world,
in far better shape than when it was originally conceived and printed.
Congratulations to ALL who
helped make all of those dreams realities, from the folks who pressed
and reported on the legislators in Montpelier to the many helpful
hands that stuffed envelopes and delivered the paper to its eager
readers.
It was early 1990 when I first took
over as editor after news that
the paper was folding. I had written some book reviews for the paper
prior to that announcement. I can't for the life of me recall the names
of the women who were running the paper at that time, but they were obviously
and thoroughly burnt out by it. Luckily, a number of staff members had
just come together at Middlebury College to form a glb group, and four
of us (Pat Noll, Sage Russell, Michael Warner, and I) felt that restarting
OITM would be a good first task for us. Within a week of a community-wide
meeting held up in Burlington, we had put together and distributed a small,
four-page version of OITM declaring that it would continue after all.
Since I knew desktop publishing and could write a halfway decent commentary,
I assumed the editorship.
I left Vermont to return to college
in the fall of 1991, and I believe that Deb Lashman became the very capable
editor of OITM at that time. I seem to recall telling her that she'd be
the next editor the first time I met her; she impressed me instantly with
her intelligence and organizational skills. She didn't think she could
ever be talked into doing it, but isn't that the case with almost every
editor that OITM has had?!?!
I'm trying to reread old journals
to get a sense of the timing here, so forgive me if the rest of the dates
are off.
It looks like I returned to OITM duties
in early 1997. I do recall that I took over editorial duties from Fred
Kuhr. At the time, the paper was almost in debt, and there was little
to no actual accounting going on. With that in mind, Kathy Sawyer and
I devised a plan to create a nonprofit company (Mountain Pride Media,
Inc.) with 501(c)3 status. (We hatched the idea over a Scrabble game at
her home, with thanks to her partner Charlotte Ross for providing the
financial advice needed to see what a good idea it was, and came up with
the name during an OutWrite conference in Boston.) The first act of the
new corporation's board was to "buy" Out in the Mountains for
the hefty sum of $1. Thus began my (re)association with both MPM and OITM.
Now I'm not entirely sure of this,
but wasn't the person who took over editorial responsibilities after I
left the supremely intelligent, creative, and highly skilled Barbara Dozetos?
I think it was...! [Webguru note: Actually, the fiery Chris Moes was next
in the saddle. Chris, are you out there?]
Anyway, it's been fun trying to recreate
this timeline. It gave me an
opportunity to look back and come across the seemingly endless roster
of names—so, so many people who either helped or inspired us to continue
OITM through those years. A few others are worth singling out: Howdy Russell
and Bill Lippert for their original efforts and continued support over
the years and Steven West (aka Cherie Tartt) for his long-running efforts
as both accountant and advertising manager. In addition to the others
I've already noted above, they kept stoking the engines when it wasn't
clear where (or if) OITM would be heading next.
Here's hoping that some new and wonderful
phoenix will rise up from the ashes of OITM...even if it no longer bears
the OITM name or masthead. Even news of the paper's folding cannot diminish
the strong sense of pride and accomplishment that I feel whenever I hear
the name. I'm sure that all of Vermont's glbtq community share in that
feeling!