Green Mountain State Update
Victory for parenting
On May 22, Governor Phil Scott signed into law a bill (VT H98) that streamlines the adoption process that confirms an existing parent-child relationship.
“Parents who use assisted reproduction, in Vermont and elsewhere, continue to face the reality that other states may discriminate against them and refuse to recognize their legal status as parents because of a lack of genetic connection—especially if the parents are LGBTQ,” said Rep. Martin LaLonde, who cosponsored the bill with Rep. Barbara Rachelson.
“This is an important step toward ensuring that LGBTQ+ families in Vermont are able to protect themselves wherever they may travel. With extremists escalating their attacks on LGBTQ+ people across the country, parents are justifiably seeking paths to secure their legal parent-child relationship, including through adoption decrees, which are easily recognizable and must receive respect in all jurisdictions,” said Polly Crozier, GLAD Law’s director of family advocacy.
More: gladlaw.org
Call for emergency funding
Pride Center of Vermont, the state’s leading LGBTQ+ health and community center, is urgently calling on the Vermont Legislature to provide emergency bridge funding after being notified of a devastating 80 percent cut to its HIV prevention and health equity funding.
The cut, stemming from changes in federal funding priorities at the CDC level, and reallocations of funding by the Vermont Department of Health, will shrink the Center’s long-standing grant through the Vermont Department of Health from $250K to just $50K. Without legislative action, this $200K reduction, set to take effect in June 2025, will jeopardize lifesaving services for LGBTQ+ Vermonters across the state.
“We’ve been a trusted partner in Vermont’s HIV prevention and LGBTQ+ health efforts for decades,” said Phoebe Zorn, Pride Center’s executive director. “This unexpected and drastic cut puts essential services—and queer and trans lives—at risk.”
“This is a public health issue and an equity issue, and is deeply harmful in a time when queer —and especially trans — rights are under attack in almost every state and at the federal level,” said Pride Center Health & Wellness Director Kell Arbor. “We are urging lawmakers in Vermont to act now to protect the health and dignity of LGBTQ+ Vermonters.”
More: pridecentervt.org
Injustice for Fern Feather
A plea deal was reached in the murder trial of Seth Brunell, the man charged for the 2022 killing in Vermont of transgender woman Fern Feather.
On the morning of April 12, 2022, State Police found Feather, a 29-year-old transgender woman of Hinesburg, Vermont, stabbed to death and left on the roadside of Morristown, Vt. Prosecutors charged Seth Brunell, then 32, with second-degree murder. Brunell claimed he was defending himself from a “sexual advance and attack,” according to VTDigger.com.
After many delays, the trial got started a few months ago. But it ended, reports VT Digger, “a day after [Brunell] attorney, Jessica Burke, made a motion for a mistrial. Burke filed the motion after discovering that a Lamoille County Sheriff’s deputy had allegedly improperly spoken with Brunell about the incident while transporting him from the courthouse to Southern State Correctional Facility on Monday afternoon,” a violation of Brunell’s Miranda rights and other legal procedure.
Brunell was then allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of second-degree murder and was sentenced to a decade of probation with no additional time in prison.
A rally quickly assembled in support of Feather in Essex Junction. “Fern Feather deserved to live,” said rally organizer Kris Smith Thyme, as reported by mynbc5.com. Said Essex Junction resident Jordan Verasamy, “It’s constantly a slap in the face to see these things happen. It shows us these people who hurt us are just going to get away with it. It’s an injustice.”
Milestone anniversary
On April 26, Vermont’s civil union laws celebrated their silver anniversary. Twenty-five years ago, the Green Mountain State became the first in the nation to acknowledge the rights and benefits of marriage, though not in that name, for same-sex couples. Once passed, the state had the most comprehensive protections for LGBTQ people, including protections from hate crimes and discrimination, in the world.
