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9 october 2000

take vermont forward

I've decided that the United States would become way more civilized if we would take a clue from Vermont.

"Oh, but you're generalizing, Kim. No place is absolutely good, or absolutely bad." Yeah, well you haven't been to Vermont. I had the pleasure of spending my weekend there, where I featured at the poetry slam at the Rhombus Gallery on Church Street. From the moment I landed, I just knew that I would like it here. The air was crisp and clear, revealing miles of peak mountain foilage around Lake Champlain. Nearly everyone was wearing sensible shoes and was dressed for comfort. Passenger cars outnumbered Urban Assault Vehicles. Smoking wasn't allowed indoors.

Most noticeably, though, it looked to me as though more people were holding hands. Which, of course, is no big deal, right? Everyone holds hands in public; Vermont certainly hasn't cornered the market on public displays of affection, right?

Actually, they have.

This year, Vermont became the first state to legalize something called "civil unions". Legally speaking, a civil union gives my gay friends the same rights as my non-gay friends who decide to get married. A civil union, for all intensive purposes, is a marriage, entitling both parties to benefits such as mutual health and life insurance, the ability to apply for joint credit --- things that married people take for granted every day.

Most importantly, however, same-sex couples finally have a place to be recognized as "one" under the law. A place to sit on park benches together and watch the leaves fall, then return home to enjoy some more life together.

Don't get me wrong, though. It's still not a perfect system. If a couple were to move to another state, their union would likely not be recognized. And, being a Vermonter doesn't automatically make a person enlightened. Take a lady named Ruth Dwyer, for example. She's running for governor. She thinks it's great to stick a sign in your yard that states, "Take Vermont Back". As in, take Vermont back from all those loving, committed gay people; and then give it back to backward, narrow-minded people like her.

Hey, Ruthie, you want a tourist's take on the matter? Consider yourself lucky to live in such a place where love abounds in so many different forms. I had the pleasure of being surrounded at the Rhombus Gallery by girls and girls, boys and boys, girls and boys, and secure single poetry lovers. I felt comfortable to sit in a room that, for those hours, felt free of fear and full of affection. I know that any one or two of them take an enormous risk every time they step onto the street with a butch haircut, or hand-in-hand. That, even in a progressive state, there are still people who wouldn't mind beating the hell out of my friends for who they are and who they love.

It's a start. One corner of the world has been brightened. We have a few more to go.