Green Mountain State Update
Bernie endorses Balint
In July, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont endorsed his fellow Green Mountain State Senator Becca Balint in her run for US Congress.
Recently, Balint, Vermont’s Senate President Pro Tempore, won the Democratic state primary by more than 20 points.
If she goes on to win the general election on Nov. 8, Balint will become both the first woman and first openly LGBTQ Congressperson from Vermont.
“I’m so honored and so pleased to have his support,” Balint told VTDigger.com, adding that she was “jumping up and down” when she heard the news.
““I feel like the work that I’ve done here in Vermont, supporting working families, is something that Bernie noticed, stuff that he really cares about,” said Balint. “He’s somebody that has deep moral clarity. So the fact that he felt like the message of our campaign was really resonating with him is just—it actually makes me kind of teary.”
Reports VTDigger, Sanders said: “In Becca’s years as a state senator, she has been a voice for rural Vermonters and proved again and again that she is a champion for the working class. Becca understands that if we are going to combat the existential threat of climate change, establish universal health care and mental health care for all, create good paying jobs in Vermont and protect American democracy, we need leaders who have the courage to challenge the status quo. Becca has that courage.”
Roadside Pride
To honor the state’s first Pride parade and rally held back in 1983, the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation unveiled its 300th roadside historic site marker.
“The marker will permanently commemorate the courage of the original parade marchers and will honor the significance of the many in the State who have sustained Vermont’s ongoing Pride movement,” states a Pride Center of Vermont press release.
“In 1983, a group of lesbian feminists began planning the first Vermont Pride march and invited the gay male community to join. The rally on June 25, 1983, which was proclaimed as Lesbian and Gay Pride Day, was held in Burlington’s City Hall Park with a parade of more than 300 participants through the business district.”
The First Vermont Pride Parade and Rally marker is located at City Hall Park (at the intersection of St. Paul and College streets) in Burlington.
More:accd.vermont.gov/historic-preservation/roadside-markers
Same-sex households
According to the latest US Census, three New England states rank in the top 10 states in the country with the most same-sex couple households. These stats were noted in a recent report by the national networking service LendingTree.
Vermont ranks number one at 2.082 percent of all households led by couples in the state (with 3,062 same-sex households); Massachusetts number two at 2.071 percent (with 29,535 households); and Maine number seven at 1.861 percent (with 6,098 households).
Harassment case
A parent of a student at the Canaan Schools in Vermont has been charged with harassment and issued “an Extreme Risk Protection Order, prohibiting [the accused man] from purchasing or possessing a dangerous weapon for at least six months,” according to a June 15 story on VTDigger.
Reports VTDigger, “Shane Gobeil threatened to “show up and kill somebody” at the Canaan Schools if his child — a student in the district — was approached by a transgender person or drag queen at school, according to a police affidavit.”
Gobeil was charged with harrassment, then released on conditions.
His trial was scheduled for Aug. 11 at the First Circuit District Court in Colebrook, New Hampshire, reports VTDigger, which notes the state of Vermont cannot also charge Gobeil because the threat was made in New Hampshire. The harassment charge carries a possible jail sentence of less than a year and a fine of $2,000.
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