21st Annual LGBTQA Community Celebration

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Drs. Boyman, Conolly, Gibson, Rivera and Sisto, Drs. Boyman, Conolly,Albertson Gibson and Thomas, Advanced Practice Providers and Montgomery, and the VTGyn staff staff, are proud along with theentire entire VTGyn are to proud to serve ourLGBTQA LGBTQ+ community! serve our community. us VTGyn.com, at VTGyn.com, or 735-1252 VisitVisit us at orcall call(802) (802) 735-1252 to schedulean an appointment. to schedule appointment.

1775 W I L L I S TO N R D. S O U T H B U R L I N G TO N 1775 williston rd. south burlington

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Learn more at aarp.org/pride.

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Welcome!

Everyone here tonight has played a part in building a thriving LGBTQ+ Community Center. As we navigate a tumultuous political climate and challenging obstacles in our path, our Center continues to emerge with strength and resilience. It is through the cooperative efforts of our dedicated staff, board, volunteers, and community partners that Pride Center of Vermont flourishes. It is with your support that we will realize continued growth and success. This evening’s Annual Celebration is evidence of this support. With your help, we intend to accomplish even more in the years ahead.

6:00

Cocktails and Hors d’Oeuvres

6:15

Tasting Stations Open

7:00

Welcome by Your Hosts Emoji Nightmare & Nikki Champagne ­— Vermont Pride Awards

7:15

Live Auction with Eileen Blackwood

7:45

Silent Auction Closes

8:00

Dancing with DJ Crystal Jonez

Thank you for joining us.

— Mike Bensel, Executive Director, Pride Center of Vermont

Many thanks to our sponsors and contributors: Shawn Lipensky, Von Bargen’s, Baker Distributing, Jay Peak, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Alison Bechdel, Tata Harper, James Buck, Oliver Parini, Jonathan Butler, Gustavo Mercado Muñiz, Margaret Tamulonis, Elevate Health Chiropractic, Karen Winslow, Vermont Comedy Club, Hotel Vermont, Lippa’s Jewelers, Saint Michael’s Playhouse, Kiss The Cook, Get Air Sports, Smugglers’ Notch Resort, Conant Metal & Light, Qi Veterinary, Bare, Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, Sondre Travel, Connie Coleman Designs and Alchemy Jewelry Arts, Erin Sue Carroll, Marilyn Gillis, Rachel Lindsay, Sequoia Salon, Honey Road, Gretchen Hidell, Wild Hart Distillery, Yankee Tattoo, Edge VT, Simon Pearce, Burlington Paint & Sip Studio, Evolution Yoga, The Pondhouse, Burlington Electric Department, Sundog Poetry Center, Deli 126, House of LeMay, Yarrow Integrative Massage, Green Mountain Cabaret, Great Harvest Bread, Tradewinds, Breakaway Farm, Call and Response Foundation, Higher Ground, Athleta, Gryphon, Light Club Lamp Shop, Matt’s Wash & Wax, Onyx Ink Studio, Play Dog Play, Pure Energy Apothecary, Revolution Kitchen, Vermont Cider Company, Vermont Teddy Bear, Zinnia Jewelry, Champlain Housing Trust, Localvore, New Duds, Lunaroma, Darn Tough Socks, Ben and Jerry’s, A Single Pebble, Fjallraven, Bluebird BBQ, Fleming Museum of Art, Misery Loves Company, Old Gold, Pokéworks, Shelburne Farms, Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Uncommon Ground, Girlington Garage, Runamok Maple, Shelburne Museum, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Two Sisters Mercantile, Homeport, Vermont Flannel Co. , American Flatbread, Arts Riot, Ashes Hair Design, Big Daddy’s Pizza, Billie Jean Vintage, Car Share Vermont, Melanie Jannery, Neon Xebra Sexotica, Old Spoke’s Home, Pete’s Greens, WaterWorks, The Body Shop, Sangha Studio, Anne Standish, August First, Danform Shoes, Switchback Brewery, Skida, Smugglers’ Notch Distillery, Montshire Museum of Science, Shelburne Vinyard, Bertha Church, Carolyn Loeb, Essex Cinema, Farmhouse Group, Penny Cluse Cafe / Lucky Next Door, Vermont State Parks, Phoenix Bookstore, Cabot Cheese, Champlain Islands Candy Lab, Citizen Cider, Down Home Kitchen, Folino’s Pizza, Josie Leavitt, Leonardo’s Pizza, Pingala Cafe & Eatery, Vermont Cookie Love, Autumn Records, Ellen Miles, Megan Moerdyk, Butch and Babes, Doggie Styles Boutique, El Gato, Foam Brewers, Jen Kahn Jewelry, Julia Berberan, Mary Lacy, Sara B Johnson

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Pride Center of Vermont staff, board, and volunteers would like to welcome you to our 21st Annual LGBTQ+ Community Celebration. This event is always a highlight of our year as we gather our friends and colleagues around to celebrate the wonderful successes of our community and Center. This event allows us to take advantage of fabulous food and company as we honor community members who have made positive impacts on the lives of LGBTQ+ Vermonters. This year, we ask for you to join us as we recognize dynamic forces of media in our state that help shape the narrative of LGBTQ+ lives in Vermont and bring voice to the movers and shakers who are making our state a better place.

Tonight ’s Program

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2019 Vermont Pride Awards JANE LINDHOLM Vermont Public Radio host of Vermont Edition and But Why? In her role as host of V ​ ermont Edition​on Vermont Public Radio, Jane Lindholm is part of a team that brings the stories and voices of the LGBTQ community to Vermont’s airwaves.

Beyond her work with ​Vermont Edition,​Jane is also the creator and host of the hugely popular podcast B ​ ut Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids​, as well as an accomplished photographer, experienced travel writer, and mother of two adorable kids. Whether she’s sharing stories that center LGBTQ issues, reporting on topics that are primary to all Vermonters or answering a question from a child halfway around the world, Jane always brings the same thoughtful, informed and inclusive approach that welcomes us all in and ensures that we see and hear ourselves in her work.

Vermont is very fortunate to have Jane Lindolm in the host chair, and we’re fortunate that the person in that chair with that microphone is also so at home in the LGBTQ community.

written by Jonathan Butler, Director of Digital Strategies, Vermont Public Radio

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In just the past year she’s hosted discussions such as “The Ups And Downs Of Rural Life For LGBTQ Vermonters,” featuring Green Mountain Crossroads & Outright Vermont; “The Trans And Nonbinary Experience In Vermont” with Taylor Small, Ezra Totten and Jess Kell; “How HIV Affects Vermonters in 2019” with Roy Belcher, HIV surveillance coordinator for the state; and “How Vermont’s Drag Queens And Kings Are Breaking Drag Stereotypes,” with Nikki Champagne, Shani, and Trey Goodlay.

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Hannaford is proud

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to support Pride Vermont

Hannaford is proud to earn a 100%Â score on the 2018 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.

Join the Hannaford team.

Check out our career opportunities at Hannaford.com.

2019 Vermont Pride Awards BROWN ‘N OUT PODCAST highlighting voices of LGBTQ+ people of color in VT

-excerpt by Maleeha Syed from Burlington Free Press, Feb. 2019

Reggie’s work with Brown ‘n Out has, in my opinion, helped those of us LGBTQ+ people of color in Vermont feel like we exist across the state and understand that we are less alone than it might seem. I can imagine that for Vermonters of color in more isolated areas where they might see themselves as the only brown people around, the podcast can be a way of challenging that sense of otherness. Not only has Reggie helped us connect to each other through the podcast itself, he is also someone who brings people together in person whenever possible to help foster that sense of belonging. Speaking as a brown queer Vermonter who moved here not really knowing anyone and without a sense of belonging, Reggie was instrumental in helping me find other QTPOC people for support and care in the area and continues to be someone who works on behalf of us people of color in the LGBTQ+ community.

-Gustavo Mercado Muñiz, Brown ‘n Out guest

L to R: host Reggie Condra with guest Eingel Negron; Brown ‘n Out on the cover of Burlington Free Press (February 2019); host Reggie Condra with guest Flore Costumé

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Guests on the “Brown ‘n Out” podcast answer two questions: What does black and brown queer culture in Vermont look like to you? When do you feel most brown ‘n out? Reggie Condra launched a “podcast about LGBTQ People of Color in Vermont” in February 2018.

Condra, 31, identifies as black and gay. He often felt the talking heads for the LGBTQ+ community were cisgender, white males. So he started “Brown ‘n Out.” The podcast features a range of voices. Condra said people labeled him an activist. He does not disagree. “But then also, I don’t think it’s so radical,” he said. “Like it shouldn’t always be an act of activism to just highlight people of color or queer people.” Crafting the podcast Condra likes to build a rapport with his subjects, getting coffee before the interview. His episodes typically begin with a funny snippet embedded in the conversation. “I never just want to ask, you know, a person kind of blanketly about their identity,” he said. “I want them to talk to me about things that they’re interested in.”

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2019 Vermont Pride Awards ALL THINGS LGBTQ ORCA Media program based in Montpelier

ORCA Media in Montpelier accepted the proposal of a LGBTQ news format program. They were truly excited by the proposal. Now, Linda just needed to make it happen. Linda turned to her partner of many years, Anne Charles, for help. Linda would report on national and celebrity news, Anne would report on international events, but there needed to be some balance with the hosts. They solicited suggestions from friends, and Keith Goslant was frequently recommended.

After many dinners, e-mails, and negotiating, Keith was on board. He would report on the Vermont legislature and the local/regional news. But, he also wanted to do interviews. Who are the out members of our community that you might not know? What, and how, were they contributing to our community?

On October 4, 2016 the first episode of All Things LGBTQ was taped. They Anne Charles, Linda Quinlan, Keith Goslant have not looked back since. Every two weeks they amble into the ORCA studio with copy in hand and then let Zack work his magic with the camera, and that oh-so-needed editing. But, not content with having achieved some degree of success, Linda had another idea: the need to sponsor a youth edition of All Things LGBTQ. On January 22, 2018, the first show of the Youth Edition aired. The content, the issues discussed, is totally decided by the youth. This is their show.

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It was Linda Quinlan who originally envisioned a radio show highlighting news of interest to Vermont’s LGBTQ communities. We may have achieved increased social acceptance and recognition but was anyone truly reporting on our news stories? However, as Linda soon discovered, producing a radio show was no small feat - the required training and certification, not to mention basic technical and sound aptitude. So, she turned to television via public access television.

Most Saturday nights there is a version of All Things LGBTQ being aired on ORCA Media Channel 15 in Montpelier.

There is a focus group that watches new episodes together & offers, unsolicited, feedback.

Linda, Anne, and Keith will occasionally be recognized while walking down State Street after a taping en-route to their traditional post-production dinner at Julio’s Mexican Café. The comments start with “I recognize you. You have that show. Thank you.” They show no signs of slowing down. Keith is just waiting to see what will be Linda’s next idea.

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Pride Center Spotlight

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VERMONT QUEER ARCHIVES by Margaret Tamulonis The Vermont Queer Archives have been a part of the Pride Center of Vermont since the organization was founded in 1999. From the very beginning the Center, founders were aware of the important need to preserve, remember, and share our community’s history. Currently consisting of 25 boxes of historical items, ranging from tee shirts to posters to newspapers, the Archives reflect some of the important history of our LGBTQ community. Posters advertising “Gay Dances” in the 1970s, issues of CommonWomon (VT’s first women’s newspaper), banners from Pride parades - the collection of items from the Archives have been used by researchers and shown in galleries and libraries in many parts of the state.

How is a community reflected in an archive? From photographs to posters to hand-printed newsletters, the Archives help document how LGBTQ people in Vermont have created community. Our archive must constantly evolve as our community changes, as new events occur, and as new spaces are created. Oral histories, artwork, and all sorts of artifacts from rainbow flags to coffee mugs are some of the material culture of a community like ours.

One especially interesting way to see the arc of a community’s histories can be through the printed materials produced.

Last year, the Pride Center collaborated with the University of Vermont’s Center for Digital Initiatives to scan and share the entire run of Vermont’s LGBT newspaper Out in the Mountains.

Founded in 1986 and in production until 2007, Out in the Mountains was one of the vital ways community was created here in Vermont, listing all sorts of events and news, including Vermont’s leadership around civil unions. This can now be explored and searched online (http://bit.ly/outinthemountains). This has already become a valued resource for students and researchers studying our history.

Over the next year, I hope we can share the Archives and their value with the community through programs and exhibitions. Last month, a group from the New England Archivists’ Association met at the Pride Center and helped with inventorying the Archives. In June, I will be speaking about the VQA at the Queering Memory Archives, Libraries and Museums conference in Berlin. And we have begun a project with the Vermont Folklife Center about the first Vermont Pride Celebration in 1983.

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v Our Amazing Staff

JUSTIN MARSH, COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, joined the organization last fall after contracting on several projects like the “You Deserve” campaign for SafeSpace, the “Got ‘Em? Screen ‘Em” campaign with Health & Wellness, and as Coordinator of the 2018 Pride Vermont Parade & Festival.

They spend their free time performing across Vermont as Emoji Nightmare, supporting LGBTQ+ events and creating intentional queer spaces in rural places.

A large component of the work they do professionally and personally is to advocate for the rural counties of Vermont (#theother13), moving towards giving them a voice and providing services to their area. Justin is a previous board member of Outright Vermont and still spends time volunteering for the organization as a Friday Night Group cofacilitator in Lamoille County, where they were raised and still reside today.

TAYLOR SMALL, DIRECTOR OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS, uses a holistic view in understanding her wellness work, and currently focuses on three main projects: HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, breast and cervical cancer screening education and referrals, and tobacco cessation education. Taylor is committed to community building and youth empowerment, as seen through her previous work at the Howard Center, Spectrum Youth & Family Services, Northwestern Counseling and Support Services, and Outright Vermont. She has a clear passion and drive to support the larger LGBTQ+ community of Vermont and has previously been featured on VPR discussing the Trans & Non-Binary Experience in Vermont. Taylor is a fierce

activist by day, and at night she becomes the wildly entertaining Nikki Champagne.

Nikki can be found all around town supporting and performing at LGBTQ+ events including First Friday, Burly Bear, Queen City Drag Cabaret and more! Nikki is also a co-host of The T, alongside Emoji Nightmare, a local TV production that focuses on arts and activism across the state of Vermont.

SKYLAR WOLFE, DIRECTOR OF SAFESPACE ANTI-VIOLENCE PROGRAM, is genuine, compassionate, transparent, and sometimes a bit quirky.

He believes that if people can learn to better love and care for themselves, they can also learn to better love and care for the world around them. Skylar has worked in LGBTQ+ anti-violence work for 6 years in a variety of roles including: suicide intervention, facilitating LGBTQ+ affirmation trainings and social affinity spaces, leading creative social change discussions and relationship workshops, providing direct services to other LGBTQ+ survivors of violence, and conducting research on the mental health of transgender university students.

GUSTAVO MERCADO MUÑIZ, TRANSGENDER PROGRAM COORDINATOR and SAFESPACE ADVOCATE, is a queer, non-binary puertorriqueñe and they support and uplift the trans community at the Center. They are a recent Gender & Sexuality Studies grad who prioritizes intersectional feminism and its roots in communities of color. They are a passionate LGBTQIA+ and racial activist who wants to work on making spaces more accessible and safe for all folks in the community and the intersections of their identities. They are always open to learning more about identities and the ways that they can be challenging and empowering for folks here in Vermont.

Gustavo is a hugger, avid reader, Beyoncé stan, and will never say no to good vegetarian food!

JOHNNY CHAGNON, HEALTH & WELLNESS COORDINATOR, works in our GLAM program for gay/bi/trans men and provides free HIV testing at the Pride Center. He has worked in HIV/STI Prevention & Education in organizations across the country since first joining

the staff at the Pride Center in 2013.

As a native Burlingtonian, he brings a passion for building a healthy, hearty gay community and also brings experience with outreach and immersion into the substance abuse epidemic that disproportionately affects queer people in Vermont. Over the past 5 years, he has provided over 1300 free HIV tests and connected hundreds to PrEP, the daily pill that prevents HIV, and is dedicated to eradicating stigma toward HIV-positive people in Vermont.

REGGIE CONDRA, HEALTH & WELLNESS COORDINATOR, is a native Midwesterner that has lived in the Northeast Kingdom and Burlington for over a decade. Noting a general lack of visibility, Reggie began a podcast (“Brown ‘n Out”) highlighting LGBTQ people of color living in Vermont in 2018.

Through his work at the Pride Center, Reggie aims to better serve the needs of all community members with special focus on these intersecting identities.

ANNE MOYERBRAILEAN, SAFESPACE ANTI-VIOLENCE COORDINATOR, is the lead advocate with the SafeSpace Anti-Violence Program where she provides emotional support, advocacy, and referrals in addition to leading workshops and groups. Anne believes in the resiliency of the community and strives to foster spaces in which LGBTQ+ Vermonters can thrive. Prior to her time at PCVT, Anne supported LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers in Sweden; Anne continues to work with the refugee communities in Chittenden County.

Board of Directors

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MIKE BENSEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, has been serving in his role since August 2018. As a founding board member, Mike spent 5 years serving on the Board of Directors and has been on staff for the past 9 years. He has a strong connection to the mission and values of the organization. As a queer man committed to social change, he is closely connected to the indispensable work of the Pride Center of Vermont. Because of the Pride Center’s collaborative culture and commitment to social justice, it has been a longtime personal objective to lead the organization toward shared success with such a dedicated team.

ERIN SUE CARROLL, CHAIR THIFEEN DEEN KARA DELEONARDIS KRAUS TAYLOR EVANS ARTHUR HULL NORMAN MEDINA

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PUTTING THE SPOTLIGHT ON PATIENTS SINCE 1983

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BIDDER #

OUR WHOLE CREW WILL BEND OVER BACKWARDS TO MAKE YOU HAPPY!

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