Pride Vermont turned out to be one bright rainbow on a rainy day this past Sunday when the Pride Center of Vermont hosted the largest Pride parade and festival in the city since their first march back in 1983.
More than 5,000 LGBTQIA+ people and friend came out, according to Burlington TV station NBC-5. About 95 groups participated in the festival at Waterfront Park.
“It’s fantastic because we outgrew Battery Park, it was too small to accommodate the level of celebration,” Mike Bensel, executive director of the event’s host organization, Pride Center of Vermont, told NBC-5.
“It’s been a difficult year with the murder of a beloved community member; we’ve also experienced vandalism, there’s been a lot of anti-LGBTQ-plus vandalism, hate around the state. It’s so important now more than ever to come out in numbers,” Bensel said.
As one Pride Burlington-goer, Maddi Weeks, told the TV station, “Pride means being able to be your authentic self, not hiding, just being able to be loud, take up the space that you have in the world.”
Read or watch the complete NBC-5 story here.
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