Before Pride

In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, LGBTQ2+ people in Vermont were used to traveling great distances for social events or hosting them in residences. Community members frequently drove to Boston, Montreal, or New York, seeking women’s bookstores, musical events, or to attend Pride marches.

We just would get in a car, whichever car could make it. Six, eight people. I had a car, it was a really old car, and it was a question if it could make it. We would wrap orange juice cans - Leah taught me how to do this - when the muffler broke because orange juice cans at that time were metal in them and you just cut it with a metal saw, and wrap it with two hose clamps and you could get to Bellows Falls without getting stopped. So it was a very creative, inventive, supportive time where we saw ourselves as the activists statewide.

Gathering places for lesbians and gay men in Vermont were often discreet, based in private homes or, more rarely, public spaces including bars like Hi Hat, Pearls, and the Taj Mahal in Burlington, Colors in Brattleboro, and the Andrews Inn in Bellows Falls.

From women’s house parties to dances—held at bars deemed safe or hosted by organizations such as the UVM Gay Student Union—the LGBTQ2+ community found solidarity and friendship through a variety of social spaces.

I was poking around trying to come up with a gay community - that was important to me to do. And at that time there was a bar in Burlington, people maybe talked about it, called the Taj Mahal. My understanding is that this guy had a Indian restaurant that wasn't doing necessarily very well, and a bunch of guys came to him and said, "if you open your bar and let us, let it be known as a gay bar, we can guarantee that a lot of people will come." And they did. And it was a sweet, sweet place.

Where was it located?

It was like maybe on College Street, maybe Bank Street, like, like around Pine. Like, maybe that—that was, I'm not sure exactly, but that was the neighborhood. It didn't mean anything to me then, I just knew that that's where it was. And I remember there was one guy I wish I could remember his name, who is like the self-appointed welcoming committee. Like so if he saw a fresh face come in, he would sort of take take you on. It was very sweet of him, actually. And, so I would go to the Taj.

The Gay Student Union was the only organization in the whole state of Vermont that was advocating on behalf of gay and lesbian people. When I got to UVM - so I came in 76. That was when I started that UVM, and there was a Gay Student Union and it met on campus, but drew people from outside campus. So that was the place where people who weren't even affiliated with the university would come to meet other gay people outside of a bar. So at the time, the bar in Vermont, or Burlington, was the Taj Mahal. It was Indian restaurant by day and a gay bar by night.

Where was it located?

 It was in downtown. It wasn't on Pearl Street, because Pearls became another gay bar. But I think it was on a street that ran parallel to Pearls. Maybe the next street over. I can't exactly remember the street. So that's where people went for a bar. And when they wanted kind of more something outside of a bar with the lights out, they attended UVM events. We would have some dances on campus, but we also convened conferences that attracted people from around the state and sometimes New England. So. Gay life was was well, there were - you asked me what life was like for me. I mean, I met most of the people I met who were lesbians were not students. So let's say there were fewer out lesbians on campus. Mostly people were closeted, but there were, I found it, I mean, it was somewhat of a supportive community. Most of the people I met were men, frankly. So there were a lot more men involved.

Andrews Inn

One public gathering place was the Andrews Inn in Bellows Falls, Vermont – an important social space for LGBTQ2+ community in the area, as well as for visitors from Boston and New York – functioning as a disco, bar, restaurant, and community space. John Moises faced local resistance when he first opened the Andrews Inn in 1973 in an old hotel building owned by his family. That resistance lessened as the Inn came to be seen as a community space and a draw for tourists. Until it closed in 1984, the Andrews Inn was a vital hub for people from rural and urban areas, reflecting and nurturing LGBTQ2+ activism and community around civil rights, feminism, and AIDS.

The Andrews Inn Oral History Project — an important effort to document the space and the experiences of community members engaged with it — is a collaboration between Out in the Open (formerly Green Mountain Crossroads), Marlboro College and Vermont Performance Lab. We are deeply indebted to HB Lozito of Out in the Open for their permission to share portions of the project as a part of the Pride 1983 exhibit.

You can learn more about the Andrews Inn and see Evie Lovett’s portraits of the interviewees here: Andrews Inn Oral History Project.

And then it was—I mean, if anything else, from the whole, you know, alcohol thing to the social thing. Now, we had the medical piece, the AIDS thing. And, you know, people that you wouldn't—like their bar manager. I mean, he should have been dead 20 times over. And he's alive. And most of the people that were either employees or worked regularly at the club, they're gone. They're gone now. It was fortunate. Unfortunate it happened after the inn closed. But, you know, I'll be like, "oh, did you hear so-and-so is gone?" There were a number of things that united us. It was like life and the importance of connection won out in the end. — Jeremy Youst

Jeremy Youst and Thom Herman co-owned Andrews Inn from 1979 until it closed in 1984. Jeremy was the self-proclaimed "behind-the-scenes guy" who knew "every square inch of that building."

Youst recently shared with Out in the Open a collection of candid photographs taken by him at Andrews Inn in the early 1980s, and they have graciously granted permission for us to present a selection of them as a part of the Pride 1983 exhibit.

For the online exhibit we have paired Youst’s photos with audio interview excerpts from Thom Herman, John Moisis, Eva Mondon, Fletcher Proctor and Jeremy Youst conducted by HB Lozito and Rainbow Stakiwicz.

Click on gallery images to access audio and larger photographs.

Click on gallery images to access audio and larger photographs.

National Gay Travel guides

By the 1970s Vermonters were producing two publications of their own, the Gay in Vermont newsletter and the women’s newspaper, Commonwomon. Commonwomon served a crucial role in the establishment of Pride in Vermont.

Commonwomon

Lesbian women formed many communities throughout the state, from communal homes to social and discussion groups.

Commonwoman was a newspaper founded in 1978, featuring feminist articles, editorials, and event listings. In 1983, a group from Commonwomon applied to the Haymarket Fund for a grant to help fund the Lesbian and Gay pride celebration.

Gay in Vermont

Formed in 1972, Gay In Vermont produced a newsletter that listed dances and social gatherings primarily for gay men. The typed newsletters highlighted dances, field trips and other social events in private and public spaces.