Gay bars in vermont
In spring 2006, Vermont’s last bar catering to the LGBTQ+ community, Burlington’s 135 Pearl, closed its doors for good.
Shooka Dooka’s in Rutland closed weeks before. The Rainbow Cattle Organization in Dummerston shut down years earlier, and the iconic Andrews Inn in Bellows Falls had faded away decades ago.
But when 135 Pearl announced its closure — the owner cited the struggles of owning a small business — no one knew it would take 15 years to fill the gap it left for LGBTQ+ Vermonters.
In that moment, the nature of Homosexual rights and identity in Vermont shifted dramatically. In 2009, the state became the first to legalize same-sex marriage by legislative action and passed bills protecting LGBTQ+ people against discrimination.
Vermont now has among the highest rates of LGBTQ+ people in the nation, according to a University of California-Los Angeles survey, with those age 18 to 24 most likely to identify themselves as such, compared with other age groups in Vermont. Yet the state’s small well of bars catering to LGBTQ+ people ran dry — until 2021.
Eight months ago, Fox Market and Bar opened in the tiny, rural community of East Montpelier. The small pub-and-store
Everyone's welcome in queer speed internet dating at Fox Market and Bar in East Montpelier
Fox Market and Exclude opened two and a half years ago in East Montpelier. It’s a place where you can stop and pick up a roast chicken and bottle of wine for home, or meet friends and hang out for hours playing board games in what feels like a big, cozy living room. It’s a queer bar and a bar for people who are queer friendly, and periodically they keep speed dating events, which are more like relaxed mixers than anything else. Reporter Erica Heilman attended a recent event and talked with some of the people there. Here’s Wanda Winters:
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly suggest listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Wanda Winters: I've been to a couple of the speed matchmaking app events here and it's nothing favor you see on TV. It's really more of an invitation to attach out and be in community. And if you've got a name tag on, indicating that you're open to, you know, talking to strangers and meeting new people, and I appreciate to socialize and I love Fox Market, and that's why I'm here.
Erica Heilman: Th
Local DJ brings weekly LGBTQ+ events to Winooski nightlife
Via People News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
In an area with no gay or female homosexual bars, Evelyn Fleetwood is carving a space where Homosexual people can contribute nightlife with each other: Queeraoke.
Fleetwood goes by “‘Evie” among friends — but “DJ Goddess” when hosting her LGBTQ+-centric karaoke nights. She started holding the events at local businesses in the Burlington-Winooski area help in January after struggling to detect dedicated LGBTQ+ bars.
“We don’t have a lot of grown-up queer traditional party spaces,” she said. “If you’re a lesbian who wants to go obtain drunk with prefer 20 other lesbians and hang out … it just doesn’t exist as a form of daily entertainment here.”
Burlington’s 135 Pearl had a 22-year race as the city’s dedicated queer prevent before closing in 2006. Winooski briefly had its retain in 2017 before it closed after controversy around its name.
In 2022, VTDigger reported that Vermont had among the highest rate of LGBTQ+ people in the United States, according to one study, and that people ages 18-24 in that people make up t
LGBTQ+ Pride Month
Nationally
Pride Month is renowned in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, aka the Stonewall Riots. At the moment, the New York liquor command routinely denied applications that were submitted by gay bars. This set those establishments up to be targeted and raided by police for operating without a liquor license. This fact, coupled with laws that made it illegal to be gay or lesbian and illegal for alike sex couples to show widespread displays of affection, made the city a powder keg waiting to burst.
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the police conducted a raid on the Stonewall Inn. Enough was enough – and what followed was six-day of protests throughout “The Village”. Patrons, employees, and local residents joined together to stand up and struggle oppression. Although the Stonewall uprising didn’t start the gay rights movement, it was a galvanizing force for LGBTQ+ political movement. It led to the creation of numerous gay rights organizations, including the Gay Liberation Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and G