It wasn’t until the year 2000 that Vermont legalized civil unions between same-sex couples, the first formalized step toward equal marriage in America. About 200 years earlier, though, Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, two women living in a rural corner of the Green Mountain State, lived openly as a couple and saw their union recognized, in spirit if not in name, by a community that respected them as “aunts” to all. Their story was immortalized in a popular book by Rachel Hope Cleves, but tonight their tale comes alive when Eva Garcelon-Hart, researcher and archivist at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, presents their fascinating story as part of the Vermont Humanities’ First Wednesdays lecture series. It’ll shed inspiring light on the surprising degree to which certain corners of old New England were able to embrace gay love.
| When | Where | How |
| Wednesday, April 7 | Brownell Library, Essex Junction, VT | vermonthumanities.org/first-Wednesdays |
