First Pride parade coming to Bennington

Posted Tuesday, June 4, 2019 6:36 pm

BENNINGTON — For the first time, Bennington will have its own LGBTQ Pride Parade later this month, part of a Pride Weekend with multiple events organized under the theme "Coming Out and Coming Together."

"[We said] `visibility is what we need,'" lead organizer Lisa Carton said, describing the decision to hold Pride in Bennington. "`And Pride is coming up. We should do Pride.'"

The majority of Pride events are held in June to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a historic uprising at the Stonewall Inn, a New York City bar that catered to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The events often feature marches, parades, festivals and parties, according to leading LGBTQ organization GLAAD. In 1999, then-President Bill Clinton declared June National Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.

The Bennington parade will line up near the Bennington Museum at 1 p.m on Saturday, June 29. It will end at People's Park on Depot Street, where there will be a Pride Festival from 2 to 5 p.m., including music, poetry, speakers and vendors, according to a media release from event organizers.

Organizers are seeking floats and participation from other towns in which Pride is an annual event, including Albany, New York, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

"Pride is historically the biggest opportunity for people to come out proudly, on every level," Carton said. "There's overwhelming support here. Then, of course, there's the realities too. There's levels of need here. In some ways, we've been way behind."

It's been very difficult for local LGBTQ people to feel safe, Carton said.

"I've lived here almost 30 years, and it's easy to sort of get, I'll say, complacent, [about] how important it is to affirm openly our rights, our needs, our basic needs as human beings to be seen for who we are," she said.

The parade will be one day after the 50th anniversary of the historic Stonewall riots on June 28, 1969.

"We're making history 50 years after the Stonewall uprising," Carton said.

The idea to hold a Pride Parade in Bennington came up at a planning meeting for Queer Connect Inc., a Bennington area umbrella organization formed earlier this year for "all things LGBTQ right here, in and around Bennington, Vermont."

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"We expanded on it," Carton said. "We're not just doing a Pride Parade. It became clear quickly that we want to do more than this."

Carton is director of Queer Connect Inc, which is organizing the effort on a volunteer basis to bring visibility to LGBTQ people to Bennington County and the surrounding areas, according to the release. There are numerous community sponsors, including Rights and Democracy (RAD), the Bennington Farmers Market, Bold Strokes Books, United Counseling Service, the Vermont Arts Exchange and the Bennington Museum, according to the release.

Other events

Pride Weekend will also include multiple other events besides the parade, including a kick-off Coming Out Bennington Celebration Friday, June 28 at 7 p.m. at the Masonic Hall at 504 Main St. The event will have live music from a band of local musicians formed especially for the event — the Pop-up Pride Band, as well as a DJ and dancing, an auction and performances by local drag queens Angelique DuBois, Chardonnay LeTease and Harmony Chanel Diamond.

There are also multiple, smaller events before and after the parade.

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All Pride Weekend events are free.

"We're going to have more kids and family-oriented activities than any other event I've been to," Carton said, adding that the weekend will feature something for everyone.

Queer Connect Inc. is committed to supporting youth in the community, as LGBTQ youth are the most vulnerable people in the country and the world, she said.

The Pride Poetry Slam will be held at the Bennington Museum from 11 a.m. to noon the day of the parade. There will also be a special tour of a brand-new exhibit at the museum from 12:15 to 12:45 that same day. The exhibit offers an intimate discussion of several objects, "specifically for the purpose of acknowledging and collecting the LGBTQ experience," Carton said.

There will also be a Queer Youth Prom after the festival on Saturday by invitation only. Participants can request an invitation through queerconnect@yahoo.com. Organizers are not publicly releasing the event's location.

The Vermont Arts Exchange bus will transport young people to the prom toward the end of the festival, according to the release.

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Participants and organizers will also gather Sunday, June 30 for a picnic from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the grounds of the Bennington Museum.

Future Pride

Organizers plan to make Pride an annual effort, Carton said. It's important to them that they pick a time when college students and other students are in school, she said.

"There's support in school that kids don't have in the summer," she said.

There were a couple expected funding sources for Pride this year, but they backed out recently, she said.

Carton said that when she posted about the lost funding, organizers got enough donations to recover that amount within hours.

"It's overwhelmingly wanted," she said. "It's way past time."

Donations are appreciated, she said, and should be made out to Queer Connect Inc. and mailed to P.O. Box 834, North Bennington, Vt. 05257.

Organizers plan to apply for grants to support their future efforts, as they're committed to an ongoing visibility campaign, Carton said.

"Speaking and educating is imperative," she said.

Patricia LeBoeuf can be reached at pleboeuf@benningtonbanner.com, at @BAN_pleboeuf on Twitter and 802-447-7567, ext. 118.