Green Mountain State Update

Bernie’s mittens

Jen Ellis — the LGBTQ mom from the Burlington, Vermont area who crafted the infamous mittens sported by Senator Bernie Sanders at President Biden and Vice-President Harris’s inauguration last month — recently donated a similar pair to Outright Vermont.

And those mittens brought in some big bucks for the Burlington-based LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit.

Long-time Outright supporter John Canning originally won them for $7,650, but then he immediately donated them back and the second-place bidder got them for an additional $7,200. What’s more, Canning offered a challenge match to additional contributions up to $10K over the following week toward Outright VT’s Camp Outright. All inspired by those mittens!

“We are grateful for the opportunity to harness the energy of the Bernie meme-mayhem to spread much needed warmth to LGBTQ+ youth in Vermont and beyond, because the truth is, the kids aren’t always alright,” says Outright VT. 

More: outrightvt.org

Progressive church’s first

When Darrell Goodwin stepped into his new role as Executive Conference Minister for Southern New England in the progressive United Church of Christ, he became the first Black LGBT person in the country to hold such a high-ranking leadership position in the UCC, overseeing some 600 congregations across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

But this wasn’t the first time Goodwin’s been at the forefront of New England communities of faith.

While earning his master’s degree in education at the University of Vermont back in 2005, he created a popular campus ministry at that school. 

“We built this amazing group: students, faculty, staff, the local community, all walks of life, LGBT, different multicultural family backgrounds,” he told University of Vermont Today.

“That was kind of my foundation of thinking of how to have an inclusive worship community. It stretched me in my theology, in my preaching, in my thought of how you make faith accessible to all people.”

A free speech issue?

Concerns over protestor backlash forced a group called Gender Critical Vermont to cancel a late January public discussion to be held at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington. The topic was to be on “the unforeseen consequences of the transgender agenda.”

Critics called the discussion “an attack on transgender people and their rights,” said Vermont’s Seven Days.

Gender Critical Vermont had requested the space in the library to host a “discussion group for Vermonters who oppose the subversion of Women’s Rights by the transgender agenda,” according to Seven Days, which went on to report: “Dana Kaplan, the executive director at Outright Vermont, said he got calls from parents all over Vermont who were concerned that the library was hosting the event. ‘I think that there are a lot of folks in our community who feel extreme relief that the event is canceled,’ said Kaplan, who is trans. There’s no trans agenda trying to subvert women’s rights, Kaplan added. The trans agenda, he said, is ‘of gender liberty where everybody gets to be themselves, and I feel that that is also a feminist agenda.’”

“We will reschedule,” said Peggy Luhrs, a lesbian activist and cofounder of Gender Critical Vermont, who said the criticism against the talk violated the group’s free speech. “We’re going to look for a bigger venue, we’re going to look for a place where we can have security. There’s just no point in having a screaming match.”

The following week, City Councilor Perri Freeman introduced a resolution affirming that “The City of Burlington acknowledges and supports the existence of transgender and nonbinary individuals in our community and supports their rights and freedom to live openly, without fear of retribution.”

The resolution passed unanimously.

HRC Best Place to Work

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. once again earned a top spot on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2021 Corporate Equality Index. The South Burlington–based corp’s perfect score of 100 comes with the distinction of “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.”

HRC’s Corporate Equality Index is the national benchmarking tool on policies and practices pertinent to LGBTQ employees. 

“Our participating companies know that building an LGBTQ-inclusive workplace is not just the right thing to do—it is also the best business decision—allowing companies to attract, retain and engage top talent,” said HRC President Alphonso David.

More: hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index

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