Community Compass
Community Compass is a service of OITM. GLBT organizations from around the state are invited to provide brief — 200 words or less — descriptions of recent or upcoming activities and events. Send your submissions to us by email by the 15th of the month.
Translating
Identity II
Back by popular demand, Free To Be, the
University of Vermont's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance
is proud to announce the second annual Translating Identity Conference
at the University of Vermont, February 28, 2004!
Translating Identity is a FREE conference
focusing on gender and gender identities. Open to the public, this event
hopes to reach out to the University of Vermont, the Burlington community,
and the nation as a whole to educate us all further about transgender
issues. With multiple panels to choose from at any time, some panels will
be directed towards trans people and others will be for those who are
fairly unfamiliar with the transgender movement and the topic of gender
identity. This conference seeks to translate gender identity to both the
queer community and its allies.
This year our keynote speaker is Dean Spade,
a transgender activist and attorney who received his J.D. from UCLA School
of Law in May 2001. His own experiences of poverty, struggle with public
benefits systems, and with gender identity discrimination inspired him
to start The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (www.srlp.org/index.html),
a
project committed to sexual and gender self-determination for all people.
This conference is FREE and includes breakfast
and lunch. To reserve your spot, register today at www.uvm.edu/~tic.
New P.R.I.D.E!
New People! New Energy! New P.R.I.D.E.!
Times are changing and so is P.R.I.D.E. - starting with a different date!
P.R.I.D.E. festivities are scheduled for July 10th this year. We have
high hopes to make the upcoming celebration bigger and better than ever
before, and encourage all to come out and see P.R.I.D.E grow from its
beginning!
Meetings are open to everyone, and held
the second and fourth Tuesday every month at UVM's Waterman building in
room 427A. If you can't make the semi-monthly P.R.I.D.E. meetings, check
out one of our sub-committees: parade, waterfront, fundraising, or media/
advertisement. You can help out when you have time and be on your merry
way!
P.R.I.D.E. also needs help with upcoming
mailings: This is a call for any willing stuffers, lickers, and sealers
to come to the table! Good times are to be had by all! You can now get
the latest P.R.I.D.E. updates by going to our website and signing up to
be on the listserv. For additional info and contacts, the in-progress-but-still-stylin'
website can be perused at www.pridevermont.org.
Rocky Horror Help
Theatre on a Shoestring is looking for a
director, musical director, band, and costumer for a possible October
production of "The Rocky Horror Show." Please send resume and
references via email to employment@theatreshoe.com
or via snail mail to "Rocky", c/o TOAS, PO Box 1012, Burlington,
VT 05402-1012. Pay possible.
TOAS is also gearing up for one of its biggest
contests ever. Opened to only new and renewing paid members, beginning
March 1 through June 30, this contest will send you flying! The contest
is appropriately entitled "Start Spreading the News." Watch
for the ad in next month's issue of OITM as well as on TOAS' website at
www.theatreshoe.com.
Samara's
Got the Money
Samara Foundation is pleased to announce
the 2004 granting guidelines. Grant applicants for 2004 must submit a
letter of intent postmarked by March 1, 2004. The Samara Grants Advisory
Committee will conduct an initial screening and then invite submissions
of full grant applications to be postmarked by April 28, 2004. Year 2004
Samara Grants will be announced in June. For more information call the
Samara office at 860.6236 or check out the grants section of our website
at www.samarafoundation.org.
Samara Scholarships for Year 2004 will be
processed through the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC). Samara
Scholarships are listed in VSAC's Scholarships (for the College Year 2004-2005).
For a copy call 1-800-642-3177. Information about applying will also be
included at www.samarafoundation.org,
along with a link to VSAC's website, www.vsac.org.
Applications must be postmarked by April 1, 2004. The Samara Scholarship
was established in 2000 as an investment in the future of Vermont students
who oppose discrimination and prejudice and who stand for the elimination
of homophobia in our society.
Transitions at SafeSpace
SafeSpace is undergoing major changes in
the New Year! We have said goodbye to Mike Bensel, our Victim Advocate
for the past two years. We'll be sad to see him go but are sure that he
will do great work wherever he is! Thank you Mike, for all your hard work!
Stepping into the Victim Advocate position
is Hannah Mason Hauser, who has been the AmeriCorps* VISTA for the past
6 months. Hannah is excited to be a permanent member of SafeSpace, and
is looking forward to continuing to work in the community.
We also have two new additions to SafeSpace,
Aidyn Laurynz and Clark Sheldon. Aidyn is the new full-time AmeriCorps*
VISTA and Clark is the Youth Violence Prevention Advocate. Aidyn was one
of SafeSpace's first volunteers, attended our first training, and has
been a committed worker in the community. Clark has also been involved
with the community; he has worked closely with Outright before and will
be developing the new Youth Violence Prevention program with Outright,
Women Helping Battered Women, and the Women's Rape Crisis Center.
SafeSpace's annual Phone-a-thon is coming
up on February 16-17th, and we need some staunch supporters to help us
continue our work! It's a lot of fun and takes very little time, but it
is a huge help to helping us support our mission. Please contact hannah@safespacevt.org,
or call (802) 863-0003 for more details.
Thanks as well to all our fantastic
volunteers and presenters, old and new, who helped us with our 2nd Volunteer
Training! We couldn't do it without you!
SafeSpace is a social service, social change
organization working to end physical, sexual, and emotional violence in
and against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning
community. We provide information, support, referrals, advocacy,
and incident documentation to LGBTQQ survivors of violence, and offer
education and outreach programs in the wider community. SafeSpace is open
10-6pm on Monday through Friday, with special extended hours from 9am-9pm
on Monday and Thursday.
(802) 863-0003 (V/TTY) or toll-free (866) 869-7341 or www.safespacevt.org.
UU Hosts South American Activist
Juan Carlos Vallejo will speak at
a forum on Sunday, February 15th, at 12:15 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist
(UU) Church at 152 Pearl Street in Burlington. Mr. Vallejo is an internationally
known human rights lawyer, professor, journalist, and political scientist
from Colombia. Now residing in Burlington, he fled his home country under
threat for his life for defending innocent victims of Colombia's civil
war. His talk will focus on the civil and human rights violations of the
GLBT population in Columbia.
Mr. Vallejo, who came to the United States
with the support of the International Institute for Education's Scholars
at Risk Program, has exposed a wide variety of human rights abuses that
have affected many innocent victims caught in the cross fire between paramilitary
forces, drug traffickers, and guerillas fighting to overthrow the government.
Of the seven human rights professors he worked with in Colombia, only
two remain alive.
Among those who have been persecuted and
killed in the Colombian civil war are poor farmers, women, and the Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) community. Mr. Vallejo has helped
to strengthen laws in Colombia to allow these disenfranchised peoples
to defend themselves and gain basic legal rights. He has received extensive
assistance from the office of Congressman Bernie Sanders, Amnesty International,
and the late civil rights attorney Arthur Kinoy, among many others.
The UU Social Action and Welcoming Congregation
committees will sponsor Mr. Vallejo's talk at the UU. For more information
contact Betsey Lord (802) 863-5455.
Winter Is A Drag, So Have a Ball!
It's winter. It's Vermont. It can be a drag.
What are we to do? Well, on Saturday, February 14, you can head to Higher
Ground in Winooski and catch the 9th annual Winter Is A Drag Ball. For
nine years this mid-winter night filled with entertainment, dancing and
fund-raising has brightened and warmed the hearts of thousands of Vermonters.
This year, as in the past several years, the beneficiary of the evening's
proceeds is Vermont People With AIDS Coalition (www.vtpwac.org).
The House of LeMay - Vermont's most outrageous
drag performance troupe - returns as this year's hosts and producer. Some
of the acts committed for the night so far include Lucy Belle LeMay, Noel,
Amanda Fondell, opera diva Melody Suite, Ruby Red Rapper, Phantasmagoria
featuring Biba and Chi-Chi and, of course, Amber and Margaurite - The
Sisters LeMay.
The theme for this year is "A Saint
Valentine's Day Mascara Ball" and what would a ball be without dancing?
Eliott Matos will be returning this year as DJ. A new part of the evening
will be Live Art by Dostie. Burlington artist Alex Dostie will be creating
art on canvas during the evening which will be raffled off. And, of course,
a Drag King and Drag Queen will be crowned. Tickets are now on sale at
Higher Ground in Winooski (www.highergroundmusic.com)
and the cost is $12 advance and $15 day of show. This is an all-ages show.
Doors open at 8pm, show is at 9pm, dancing begins after the show, and
the crowning of the King & Queen takes place after midnight. This
event is sponsored in part by Seven Days, Silver Mountain Graphics, Vermont
Gay Social Alternatives, Motel 6, RU12? and WNCS - The Point.
For additional information contact Bob Bolyard
by calling 865-3734, or the VTPWA Coalition at 1-800-698-8792 or 802-229-5754.
Dinner with the Saints
The Cathedral Church of St. Paul announces its
first-annual "Dinner With the Saints: St. Valentine's Day Fundraiser
at St. Paul's Cathedral," a catered dinner and silent auction to
support the Cathedral's mission and ministry. Sponsored by St. Paul's
active GLBT Group, the event will take place on Friday, February 13, 2004,
at St. Paul's Cathedral, 2 Cherry Street, Burlington, Vermont.
The silent auction will begin at 7:00 pm,
accompanied by live music, cash bar and hors d'oeuvres. The dinner, catered
by Barbara Bardin of Let's Pretend, will be served at 8:00 pm. Dessert
will be served, and auction results announced, at 9:00 pm. The menu for
this event includes assorted Hors d'oeuvres, Mesclun Greens with Warmed
Goat Cheese and Spiced Pecans, Misty Knoll Statler Chicken Breast with
Apple Cider and Fennel Demi-glace or Vegetable Napoleon, Vanilla Bean
Scented Sweet Potatoes, Haricots Verts, Coffee and Valentine Desserts.
Tickets cost $45.00 if ordered by February
1, or $50.00 if ordered February 2-6. To order tickets or for more information,
contact St. Paul's Cathedral: 802-864-0471 or twallace@stpaulscathedralvt.org.
To donate items and services, contact Becky
Roberts, 425-2280 or brinbliss@msn.com.
To donate artwork, contact Ernie Hathaway, 893-3802 or eghglassware@aol.com.
Sing Out with the VT Gay Men's Chorus
The Vermont Gay Men's Chorus will start
rehearsals on February 1, 2004 in Montpelier, VT at the home of Bill Pelton.
Bill lives at the top of Witt Place (on the right next to the Capital).
We plan to rehearse and go over our Spring/Summer Concerts starting at
4:00 pm.
If you have the time and would like to join
this Gaggle of Gay Guys, please consider joining us! For more information
and directions reply to robnyves@hotmail.com.
Black History Films at UVM
As part of the celebration of Black History
Month, LGBTQA Services and the Center For Cultural Pluralism are co-sponsoring
a film series to celebrate the life and work of Marlon Riggs. We will
be showing the four films you see listed below. If you would like fliers
to hand out in your class let us know by emailing eli.clare@uvm.edu
and we'll mail them to. I will send along more information about Marlon
Riggs and his ground breaking work involving race and sexual orientation
from his perspective as a black, gay man.
Here is the schedule:
2/2 "I Shall Not Be Removed" a film about Riggs' life and filmmaking.
2/12 "Ethnic Notions"
2/19 "Black Is, Black Ain't"
2/23 "Tongues Untied"
All of the films will be shown between 4:30
and 6:30 in Memorial Lounge in Waterman.