Bill Lippert
Bill Lippert has served in the Vermont House of Representatives since 1994 and is the founder of the Samara Foundation (now the Samara Fund for LGBT Vermonters). He has served on the boards of VT CARES, Addison County Battered Women's Project, and Outright Vermont.
And, you know, I can say more about, you know, what the you know, frankly, it was it was scary. It was scary for a lot of—a lot of people. I had the good fortune in 1983 to be working in a work setting where I was able to be out at work at that point. And that, that made a big difference. The context is really important because in 1983, there were no legal protections for job discrimination or any other kind of - or housing discrimination in Vermont. And I'd have to look to see if there had been anything passed yet anywhere in the country in terms of a state. I think some cities were passing it, but there certainly was nothing in Vermont that didn't happen until the late 80s. So there were reasons for people to be apprehensive about being outed publicly as a gay man or a lesbian. It's so hard to convey to the young, some of the younger people what life had been like, just like.
I think the first one I just was, I was just there with my friends and hanging out with Howdy and some other friends. And what was in that first year and even in the first numbers of years, it was clear that we had many friends who were standing along the sidewalk or sitting as we went down Church Street. Folks who we, we'd look and we understand, you know, they, they work at, I can think of somebody, it's like, well, they work at St. Mike's, a Roman Catholic college, or they work for a childcare center or they work different where their jobs were, where they were more vulnerable than some others of us. And, and, it wasn't uncommon and it was actually, I think, fairly common in that first march for us to have friends along the march route who were pleased to see that we were doing this and cheering us on. But they were not ready personally, professionally or to take the risk of what could happen if they were actually in the march and potentially photographed. Because that became part of what the fear was as well. Well, I'd be, you know, outed to family or employers or others who. Or maybe where I rent.
The fears weren't completely groundless. But in the context of what it was, it was an exhilarating opportunity to begin to make another level of change, another level of visibility.