P.R.I.D.E.

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BY EUAN BEAR

entire P.R.I.D.E. in Vermont
Committee had resigned, that there

wouldn’t be a Pride celebration after all —
and put "them together with an apparent
lack of publicity through expected outlets,
you might think that assimilation via civil
union, or dissension, or plain old apathy
was about to end LGBTQ Pride in
Vermont.

And you’d be wrong. Or so says
Michael Glidden of Middlebury, one of the
co-chairs of the Vermont Pride Committee.
“The committee has been consistent,” he
maintained. “We began with l0 people,

“f you believed the rumors — that the

' and a few people either moved out of state

or had job changes, so we are down to
about seven.” He noted that all of the
Pride planning committee members except
Mary Abar, the treasurer, were new as of
last fall. It took this new committee a bit
longer to get up and running, he said.

That planning delay was in large
part responsible for the change in date for
the Pride Parade and Festivalfrom the tra-
ditional June weekend to July 10. “As a
new committee, we just needed the addi-
tional time,” said Glidden.,Another reason
he cited was that the traditional dates con-
flicted with Father’s Day, not to mention
the New York and Boston Pride celebra-
tions. Boston was expected to be huge this
year due to the celebration of equal mar-
riage rights conferred by the
Massachusetts Constitution and affirmed
by the commonwealth’s Supreme Judicial
Court. New York celebrated the 35th
anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion.
Finally, the organizers hope for less unset-
tled weather this month than is typical in

» June.

Glidden, involved in Pride organ-
izing for the first time, said he had no
complaints about his dealings with the
Burlington Parks Department or the city

police, in contrast to last year’s committee.

He got involved, he said, because “I want-

nity.”

ed to have a Pride Day. It will happen.
We’ll have a wonderful Pride weekend.”
Glidden, a small business owner, has been
active in the community most recently
through the steering committee of Vermont
Gay Social Alternatives (VGSA).

The biggest challenge for
P.R.I.D.E. in Vermont hasn’t changed
much over the years: getting volunteers,
both on Friday for the set-up phase, and on
Saturday to provide security at intersec-
tions along the parade route. A new chal-
lenge is getting people and organizations
to register and pay a fee (ranginglfrom
zero to $100 per float or organization,
depending on size and type) for spots in
the parade. “We’re just getting a record of
who’s there to help in next year’s planning
and creating a mailing list and a database,”
Glidden explained.

Another new and “large” chal-
lenge has been getting the lgbt communi-
ties to check the P.R.I.D.E. in Vermont
website (www.PrideVermont.org) for
information rather than relying on other
sources. “It’s been a large learning curve,”
said Glidden, “for us and for the commu-

Other changes include the parade
starting at ll:30, not noon, and the speak-
out occurring at Waterfront Park after the

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prior to the parade. The parade route has
also changed ~ detouring around City Hall
Park to avoid the construction zone in
front of City Hall, according to Glidden.

At press time, negotiations with
potential MCs and a “Grand Marshal”
were still underway, and Glidden declined
comment when names were mentioned. A
Among the possibilities included in Pride
Committee minutes on the website are
(NH Episcopal Bishop) Gene Robinson,
(singer) Melissa Etheridge, (former talk-
show host) Rosie O’Donnell, and (comedi-
an and talk—show host) Ellen DeGeneres.

And in case you were wondering,
that’s P.R.l.D.E. in Vermont, and it stands
for “People of the Rainbow Integrating
Diversity Everywhere” in Vermont.

Asked whether lgbt Pride events
were an endangered species — due to
assimilation, civil union, or even apathy —
Glidden was adamant: “No! No! Just as
Irish-Americans celebrate their heritage,
and some Christians celebrate their culture

‘ with Mardi Gras coming from Fat Tuesday

in the Lenten tradition, we will celebrate.
It might be a celebration rather than a
political statement or a push for political
change. [But] all it takes is one event to
change things. Pride didn’t exist before
Stonewall, and that was one event.” V

march instead of being a rallying point

Unity Pro'ect
Releases

eeds

Assessment  

Data

ore than a year ago, the
Unity Project asked mem-
bers of the lgbt communi-

ty in Vermont to answer a question-
naire on what the community need-

"ed most. The results have been com-_

piled since last October, but had not
been released before now, said
Samara Foundation Executive
Director Bill Lippert, because they
were not yet in an easily presentable
form. A

Samara Foundation part-
nered with the Vermont Community
Foundation to raise funds for the
Unity Project to grant to the com-
munity; The needs assessment
“informed” the priorities of the grant
Committee in deciding what kinds of
projects would be welcomed for
Possible grants from the project.

The most interesting

assessment survey results came from
thecommunity issues respondents
ranked as most important: civil
rights (89%), protection against vio-
lence and HIV/AIDS education and
prevention (77% each), access to
lgbtq-friendly physical and mental
health care (76% each), support for
lgbtq youth in school (75%), and
community education to decrease
homophobia (75%).

At the same time, some of
those items were ranked among
issues that were not being adequate-
ly addressed, topmost among them
community education to decrease
homophobia. Responses from out-
side Chittenden County said that
reducing isolation was not being
adequately addressed, while
Chittenden County respondents
tended to identify greater communi-

ty cohesiveness as an inadequately
addressed issue. Support for lgbt
elderly (66%), teachers (67%), and
youth (65%) was high on the list of
issues needing more attention, fol-
lowed by support for kids in lgbt
families, affordable housing, and

HIV/AIDS medical services (60%

each).

"‘We intend to make these
data available to community organi-
zations and interested researchers as
soon as possible,” said Samara’s Bill
Lippert. “We just have to figure out
a structure.” The preliminary report
was prepared by Jelie Todoseijevic,
a doctoral student at t e University
of Vermont, and UV faculty mem-
ber Dr. Sondra Solom

Some people wrote addi-
tional comments: “I am a teenager
in Orleans County, and from what I
know of there is not much for
GLBTC [sic] youth. It only makes it
more difficult for myself and
others.”

“Gay day is not enough!
We need more social gatherings
open to all. One nice gay restaurant
would be great. Gay day at Expos?
Gay day at Shelbume Farms? Gay
day at Mad River Glen? We need to
bring our peopletogether more than
once a year.”

“I can’t emphasize enough
how important it is to help GLBT
adults get together for dating and

SEX. We also need equipment and
access to sexual services.”

“I have experienced dis-
crimination and harassment because
of age from both lesbian/gay com-
munities and individuals.”

“I think this survey is a
great idea. Will the results be pub-
lished anywhere?”

The results reflect the
responses of 220 respondents, more
than three-fourths of whom got their
surveys as inserts in the September
2002 issue of Out in the Mountains.
The demographic information
reveals few surprises, with average
age at 46 (ranging from 17 to 78 at
the time of the survey) and almost
two-thirds of the respondents identi-
fying as women (36% were men,
three percent “other”). Self-identi-
fied lesbians made up 47%, while
35% of the respondents identified as
gay and 8.6% as queer.

The respondents were
overwhelmingly “European-
American” (87%), while 3 percent
identified as African American
(.5%), Asian American (.5%),
Native American (.9%), or Hispanic
(1.4%), and 6.8 percent as “Other.”

.More than half (55%)
reported practicing a religion.
Unitarians led the pack with 31 per-
cent, followed by other Christians
(24%), Jews (9%), Catholics (8%),
other (7%), Quakers (5%), Wiccans

(4%), Protestants (3%).

Average household
income was $51,000 to $62,000, and
not surprisingly, older respondents
and those in committed relationships
showed higher household incomes.
More than half of the respondents
(56%) were in committed relation-
ships. Those with more education
and higher incomes were more like-
ly to be “always out” to their fami-

. lies of origin, according to the

report. Likewise, people with higher
incomes were more likely to be
“always out” at work.

Chittenden County resi-

A dents sent in 34 percent of the

responses, followed by Washington

County (11%), Windsor (8%), and

Addison and Windham counties (7%
each).

The respondents to the
survey were committed voters:
about 90 percent said they were reg-
istered and had voted in the (civil
union backlash) election of 2000.

More than half (54%) said
they had experienced discrimination
because of gender identity or sexual
orientation; five percent had experi-
enced racial or ethnic
discrimination. V