Checking out candidates’ statements on community access TV is usually a formality. You expect to see people reading bland generalities from a script. You don’t expect to see something you’ve never seen before. But that’s just what happened the other day when I watched Lake Champlain Community Access TV’s offering of statements from candidates for the Milton Town School District Board.

And there, second in the rundown, was Ember Nova Quinn, who identifies as queer and uses “they/them” pronouns, pouring their heart out in despair over being made to feel unwelcome — unsafe, even — in their own community, and announcing their withdrawal from public life.

Wow. Just wow.

This is one person’s point of view and shouldn’t be taken as gospel. But it does reflect a very real and very deep divide in Milton politics. Each side accuses the other of bullying, threats, even vandalism. It’s gotten intense in the runup to Town Meeting Day elections, which effectively feature competing “slates” of conservative and liberal candidates.

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