Youth Pride March a Success
Important school-sponsored event provided support to Hinesburg LGBTQ+ youths
By Bill Lippert
Former Hinesburg State Representative
Did you see the rainbow bedecked Youth Pride March winding through the village of Hinesburg on Saturday June 7? Yes, right here in Hinesburg!
More than 50 students, teachers and staff, parents and community members from throughout the Champlain Valley School District (CVSD) gathered outside the Hinesburg Community School (HCS) in the morning. They shared camaraderie, listened to affirming speeches and stories, and ate free hot dogs and ice cream amidst a safe crowd celebrating their diverse LGBTQ+ presence within the CVSD schools. The group marched from HCS through Hinesburg village, visibly rainbow-colored and proud, to the cheering honks from many passing cars.
Hinesburg’s first CVSD Pride March & Rally took place in 2021, sparked by the anonymous defacing of a chalked rainbow flag that had been created by students outside the Hinesburg Community School. Each year, for the past five years, CVU’s Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and CVSD has supported an annual Youth Pride Rally & Celebration.
Vermont’s first Gay Pride March & Rally took place in Burlington in 1983. This was Vermont’s first celebration and commemoration of the original Gay Pride March in New York City in 1970. The 1970 March and Rally followed a June 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn – a gay bar in Greenwich Village – and the several days of spontaneous fighting back by the gay community. June 1969 is now widely celebrated as the Stonewall Rebellion and the beginning of the modern, visible and defiant Gay Liberation/Rights Movement.
In Hinesburg, the Youth Pride Rally and March is all about standing up for the students. It is about affirming the rightful place of CVSD students to safely express and explore their sexual orientation or gender identity within our local schools – free of bullying or harassment. It is about being able to safely share that their home has two mothers or two fathers. LGBTQ+ students, and those from LGBTQ+ families, deserve to be able to thrive, not just survive.
Vermont has worked hard to provide legal protections for LGBTQ+ Vermonters and create a welcoming state environment. We have passed nondiscrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. We have led the way in supporting LGBTQ+ relationships and families by protecting LGBTQ+ adoptions and fostering, and by creating the first civil unions law and, ultimately, full marriage equality. We have passed statutes affirming the rights of queer and trans youth to be welcomed and safe in Vermont schools.
We are coming up on the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision granting full marriage equality for same-sex couples throughout the entire country. The 2020 U.S. Census showed that over 700,000 same-sex couples in all 50 states have ‘tied the knot.’ Another 700,000 same-sex couples publicly acknowledged to the Census living together as a couple.
Nevertheless, these are troubling times, especially at the national level, and in some states. Attacks on trans adults are proliferating including taking away their right to serve in the military, while threats to trans youth’s rights to receive gender-affirming health care are escalating. There are active threats in a number of states, and by some religious groups, to take away the right of full marriage equality.
Supporting queer and trans youth, and LGBTQ+ families, all across Vermont, is more essential today than ever. Organizations like Outright Vermont, founded in 1989 to serve LGBTQ+ youth, are critical in these challenging and turbulent times.
Outright’s Mission: “Building a Vermont where all LGBTQ+ youth have hope, equity, and power!" Outright’s Vision is “a world where LGBTQ+ youth have boundless possibilities for joy, and all people know liberation.” (Contact Outright Vermont at outrightvt.org)
We have come a long way since Stonewall in 1969, and Vermont’s first Gay Pride March in 1983.
Who could have imagined that in 2025 there would be Pride Celebrations and activities all across Vermont in towns and cities as large and small as Brattleboro, Bennington, Barre, Essex Junction, Newport, Montpelier, St. Albans, Rutland, Springfield, Woodstock, and Hinesburg.
Mark your calendars: Burlington’s huge annual Pride March and Celebration takes place this year on Sunday, Sept. 7, from noon to 5 p.m. (For more information contact Pride Center of Vermont at info@pridecentervt.org.) Join us.
Seeing our Champlain Valley School District visibly supporting our LGBTQ students, and seeing CVSD students, parents, school teachers and staff rallying at HCS, and marching through our village of Hinesburg, gives us hope for our future. We are not going back. All of our lives matter. We all deserve to thrive. We are committed to going forward together.