COVID-19 Can’t Stop Pride
https://www.vtcng.com/thecitizenvt/news/covid-19-can-t-stop-pride/article_e2fc6b68-bc71-11ea-846f-1b9f2ac6b531.html
The Citizen | Authors: Lilly Young & Anna Morrill
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Taylor Small, director of health and wellness for the Pride Center of Vermont, moved from Massachusetts her sophomore year of high school. She had family in Vermont and planned to attend the University of Vermont.
The state became a place that embraced Small, as opposed to her hometown in where she said her identity was never accepted and she faced bullying and harassment at school.
“In Massachusetts people would call me gay or say that I was gay. And instead, folks here would ask the question like, are you gay? Which at first was very off-putting, like focusing on the fact that I had come from a background where folks were very aggressive around that identity. I wasn’t in a space where I was ready to embrace that,” Small said.
After living in Vermont for three years, Small said she finally felt comfortable to come out to those around her, senior year of high school. Small came out as trans her senior year of college.
While at UVM, Small began volunteering at Outright Vermont, a non-profit that has been working with LGBTQIA+ youth in Vermont since 1989.
Small’s first interaction with Outright Vermont was at the Vermont Drag Idol competition, an amateur drag fundraiser.
“So often when we think of drag, we think of it within a nightclub scene or a bar, so it’s pretty age-restricted, but also a beautiful place for people to understand and embrace their identity,” Small said.
Small competed for the first time in 2014. There were 12 contestants. She won as her drag persona Nikki Champagne.
“They gave me that platform to be able to, I mean now, do all the drag events in the area,” Small said.
Nikki Champagne has since done drag events around Vermont including Paint: A Drag Cabaret, Glitter and Duct Tape, The Vermont Pride Festival, Queer Pop-Up Dance Party, and SASS, among others.
Last year, Small hosted The Vermont Pride Festival in drag as Nikki Champagne.
“It was our largest Pride yet, we had over 4,000 people show up in little old Burlington to celebrate our beautifully diverse community. And just standing in Battery Park and being able to see everyone and feel that love and that embrace. There’s nothing else like it,” Small said.
Small noted Black trans women helped lead the original movement.
“I’m so grateful for Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and leading this cause. Trans women from the beginning leading this cause and saying enough is enough. So I stand on their shoulders today and I’m always paying them respect for the work that they’ve done,” Small said.
Small noted that there is still work to do, particularly in today’s world where the Black Lives Matter movement has garnered widespread attention. Black trans women are among those discriminated against.
“So often I think our history has been whitewashed in the way that we celebrate Pride and it feels like that movement is coming. That we are embracing the fact that it is not just about LGBTQ rights, but it is about our collective rights that we all deserve,” Small said.
The Pride Center is working to find a way to take this year’s festival online. Pride Week is Sept. 7-13. There will be a virtual Pride celebration on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Small volunteered at Vermont Pride Center in 2018 when she became unemployed after her employer refused to use the correct pronouns and other businesses refused to hire her, she said. She is now the director of health and wellness there, and is running for the Winooski House seat as a Democrat. If she wins, she will be the first openly transgender person elected to the Vermont Legislature.
Small is among three transgender women running for house seats this year, according to local media.
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