Madeline Veitch (Putney)
2002 Scholarship Recipient
The Putney School, Putney

Madeline has been an incredible political and personal activist for many years of her life. In 6th grade, at the age of 12, she came out to her family and friends. During her first two years of high school at Brattleboro Union, she was a strong leader of PRISM, the school's GSA. She spoke out about homophobia at BUHS to her peers, teachers and administration (and asked football players not to call each other "faggot"). Madeline developed an androgynous cartoon character named Charlie and put out a series of queer-friendly zines, as well as incorporating glbtq issues into a monthly newsletter she put out as part of her outreach work with The AIDS Project. As she stated, "I was very into being visible then (pictures of me from that era are somewhat comical; sporting a buzzcut, and swathed in all things rainbow, I looked like some sort of attempt at a lesbian superhero), and wanting very much to send the message to other queer kids that they could be themselves and still function in a hostile school climate."

When Madeline transferred to The Putney School, her work changed since the school environment was much more supportive and she no longer felt that she needed to be in "survival mode." She took an active role in protests and campaigned in support of civil unions. She has a very heightened political/personal awareness, as she states here:

"Overt homophobia was passé at Putney, which at first seemed like a great thing, but gradually proved to be a barrier between the community and any discussion of how queer issues played out on campus. There is, I think, a liberal tendency to accept the realization that something is wrong as the work that needs to be done to right it. Communication shuts down when the assumption is made that everyone is in agreement and on the same page. For the past two years, I've been involved on and off with the alliance, but more importantly, I've spoken with a variety of kids on campus about queer issues. Despite the liberal atmosphere, the main problems being brought up are essentially the same as they were at my old school: isolation, coming out to parents, labels - to reject or embrace them, and gender role stereotypes."

Madeline is passionately dedicated to social justice issues and is currently organizing a youth activism conference (making sure it includes glbtq issues). Madeline will attending Mount Holyoke this fall where she will study Critical Social Thought.