July 21, 2000

Legal Scholars of Gay Rights Offer Strategies to Combat the 'Apartheid of the Closet'

By D.W. MILLER

For a few gay Vermonters like Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh, Independence Day came early this year. On July 1, the pair's pursuit of happiness led them to the city clerk's office in South Burlington, where they became one of the first gay couples in the country to join in a "civil union" akin to marriage.

The women called it the end of a "27-and-a-half-year engagement." It was also the culmination of their civil-rights lawsuit, which had convinced the

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