Green Mountain State Update
Winooski winners
In early March, voters in Winooski elected an entire slate of LGBTQ+ city councilors, “a first for Vermont and likely one of the first such instances in the US,” according to a report on VTDigger.org.
Both openly queer incumbent Bryn Oakleaf and newly elected Charles Judge, openly trans, ran unopposed. They join incumbents Thomas Renner, who is gay, and Aurora Hurd, who is bisexual, neither up for reelection this year.
“I’m elated,” Judge told VT Digger after the results were released. “It means so much to represent the transmasculine community and the queer community as a whole. I just feel really honored.”
“It’s pretty remarkable to be part of some groundbreaking history in Vermont,” added Oakleaf. “I really hope it encourages anyone that wants to pursue office themselves to just go for it.”
Supporting trans athletes
The Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) announced in mid-March that they will not allow a girls high-school basketball team from White River Junction to play in future tournaments after the team refused to compete with a transgender player on an opposing team.
The Mid-Vermont Christian School girls team gave up their chance to compete in a Division 4 state championship tournament when their team refused to play against a transgender player on the Long Trail School’s roster.
The VPA’s policy on gender identity protects the rights of students to participate in athletic activities “in a manner consistent with their gender identity.”
In doing so, the VPA ruled, Mid-Vermont Christian School’s violation of this policy rendered the team, and all other sports teams at the School, ineligible to participate in future tournaments.
“The VPA again reiterates its ongoing support of transgender student-athletes as not only a part of building an inclusive community for each student to grow and thrive, but also as a clear expectation by Vermont state law(s) in the Agency of Education Best Practices, and in VPA Policy regarding transgender student athletes,” the association said in a statement.
Nonbinary gender markers
Thanks to an appeal from the South Royalton Legal Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School, parents in Vermont will be able to use a nonbinary gender marker on their child’s initial birth certificate.
“We felt that by telling people they have to choose one of the binary genders and then can later amend, it delegitimizes the nonbinary gender marker,” Meg York, lead attorney for the clinic’s LGBTQ+ Family Law Project, told VTDigger.org. “It implies that ‘M’ or ‘F’ are really the true genders.”
The process to amend birth certificates issued by the state was established only last year through legislation promoted by State Rep. Taylor Small, which cut out doctors, judges and extensive documents, noted VT Digger. Now, that process has been further streamlined.
Trans & reproductive health care
The Vermont House of Representatives voted in February in favor of legislation that defines reproductive care and essential transgender health care as legally protected health care activity in the state.
The bill (H. 89), “An Act Relating to Civil and Criminal Procedures Concerning Legally Protected Health Care Activity,” seeks to protect individuals providing or seeking reproductive or transgender health care in Vermont from abusive civil or criminal litigation arising from another state. It also provides address confidentiality protections for providers and seekers of reproductive and transgender health care and increases penalties for threatening or using force against those providing or obtaining such legally protected care.
“With this legislation, the Vermont House is displaying the state’s deep commitment to protecting access to vital evidence-based health care and setting a model for other states to follow,” said Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).
More: glad.org
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