In 1983, a group of lesbian feminists began planning the first Vermont Pride march in Burlington and invited the gay male community to join. Public celebration of pride in Vermont was controversial at the time, and Vermonters had attended marches in larger cities where it was safer to be visible while commemorating the Stonewall uprising of June 1969 in NYC, the beginning of the national LGBT Pride movement. Linking these struggles to racism, classism, and anti-Semitism, planners sought endorsement from government officials and more than 300 organizations. Despite vigorous opposition, Burlington's Board of Aldermen ultimately endorsed the march in a 6-5 vote. Vermont's first Pride March, titled the "Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade and Celebration" and themed Water Won't Run Straight and Neither Will We, took place on June 25, 1983, when a rally in City Hall Park, proclaimed as Lesbian and Gay Pride Day, was followed by a parade through the business district. In a sea of purple balloons, more than 350 marchers risked physical safety, jobs, housing, and family relationships to be openly visible in their home state. Vermonters have rallied every year since 1983 across the Green Mountain State to continue the movement for sexual orientation and gender identity rights and the freedom to live safely and love who they love.
