Vermont
Whether friends or strangers, thousands mourn transgender woman killed in Vermont
Buddies of Fern Feather this week remembered the Vermonter as a healer, a plant and animal lover, a heat one who danced by means of the world constructing connections and neighborhood.
“You’d by no means even see her with out a smile on her face,” mentioned Michele Wildflower, of Westmore, who first met Feather greater than a decade in the past. “You could not be along with her and never really feel good.”
However as they grappled with information that Feather, a transgender girl from Hinesburg, had been fatally stabbed in Morristown on Tuesday, they have been joined by 1000’s of LGBTQ+ Vermonters throughout the state who have been making an attempt to course of the 29-year-old’s violent loss of life.
Leaders of LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations within the state — together with the Satisfaction Middle of Vermont, a neighborhood middle in Burlington, and Outright Vermont, which is geared towards LGBTQ+ youths — mentioned they have been offering sources for anybody grieving the loss, whether or not they knew Feather personally or not.
“When violence like this occurs, it could trigger a variety of unease and a variety of worry and anxiousness,” mentioned Mike Bensel, government director of the Satisfaction Middle. “For trans and non-binary Vermonters, it is instances like these that folks actually need to return collectively and rally round and present their solidarity and help for this.”
Seth Brunell, 43, pleaded not responsible on Thursday to a second-degree homicide cost in Feather’s loss of life. Court docket paperwork point out that the 2 had been spending time collectively after Feather picked up Brunell as a hitchhiker days earlier.
In accordance with a police affidavit, Brunell claimed Feather had “attacked him” after making a sexual advance. Brunell confirmed no accidents nor “indications of an altercation,” police mentioned.
Prosecutors haven’t mentioned whether or not they consider Feather’s gender was an element within the killing. Lamoille County State’s Legal professional Todd Shove on Friday mentioned legislation enforcement had recognized further folks to interview and that his workplace would “transfer ahead appropriately” if it discovered proof to prosecute a hate crime.
Wildflower recalled first assembly Feather greater than a decade in the past on the Northeast Kingdom Music Competition and being instantly taken by Feather’s real heat.
Feather confirmed all life varieties love, together with the littlest creatures like bugs, Wildflower mentioned.
That prolonged to strangers. Damarah Barr-Smith, of Plainfield, recollects the primary phrases Feather shared after they met at a bonfire: “You are too fairly to be standing alone.”
“Every part about Fern simply makes you are feeling so particular,” Barr-Smith mentioned, recalling how Feather additionally rescued birds and saved canines and fish.
Barr-Smith mentioned anybody Feather met — even when only for a second — could be handed a rock, a crystal, a hug, a kiss on the cheek. Feather was “continuously like this giver of affection,” she mentioned, recalling her buddy’s love of greenery that matched their chosen title.
“1000’s of crops have been hanging off the ceiling and down the steps, crops that I’ve tried to make stay for years, and have been simply thriving in (Feather’s) home, in the midst of the woods in Vermont, in the midst of winter,” she mentioned.
When Wildflower first heard information of Feather’s loss of life, she instantly considered the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Feather had written a public Fb submit in late March about figuring out as a trans girl.
“She simply got here out,” Wildflower mentioned. “What is the message to our trans youth that it is advisable remember as a result of folks hate you?”
(Buddies mentioned Feather used a mixture of pronouns over their life and since saying their transition publicly, and will have been utilizing a number of pronouns on the time of their loss of life.)
Cassidy Sargent, of Burlington, recalled assembly Feather for the primary time at a bonfire. Sargent was having a tough day, and Feather made her really feel heard and cared for, Sargent mentioned.
“We ended up instantly bonding to the extent the place we type of closed ourselves off and simply acquired actually deep into life,” Sargent mentioned. “She appeared to only have this actually vibrant, loving, open-arms power, which I actually appreciated.”
Like Wildflower, Sargent fears that Feather was focused because of their gender id.
“Vermont is absolutely painted as this stunning, holistic, loving surroundings,” Sargent mentioned, however “there are lots of people in our state who wrestle to see goodness in folks like Fern, and that makes me actually unhappy.”
Bensel, of the Satisfaction Middle, mentioned Feather’s homicide referred to as to thoughts the loss of life of Amos Beede, a transgender man who was murdered in Burlington in 2016.
They mentioned Feather’s stabbing, mixed with transphobic rhetoric by state legislatures, Fox Information and Vermont’s GOP, have created a scary surroundings for trans and nonbinary people.
The “intersection of violence and id” is an ongoing situation in Vermont, they mentioned. Regardless of Vermont’s popularity as a progressive state, “we now have a protracted solution to go to create a state the place this sort of violence would not occur,” they mentioned.
Nationally, 2021 was the deadliest yr for transgender and gender non-conforming folks on report, in accordance with Time, which cited a Human Rights Marketing campaign report indicating not less than 50 trans and gender non-conforming folks have been killed, a possible undercount.
One other examine by Williams Institute at UCLA Faculty of Regulation discovered that transgender folks have been greater than 4 instances extra doubtless than their cisgender friends to be victims of violent crime.
In Vermont, Bensel sees a pointy divide between communities which might be both affirming or unsafe for LGBTQ+ people.
“There’s undoubtedly some progressive pockets,” they mentioned, “and there is communities which might be, you understand, rolling up their sleeves and investing within the work to ensure that their communities, their colleges, their help networks are affirming to trans and non-binary of us. After which there’s communities which might be very a lot unsafe.”
The Satisfaction Middle runs a SafeSpace Anti-Violence Program which features a help line that folks can contact by cellphone (802-863-0003) or on-line chat. Bensel mentioned the “majority” of people that attain out to make use of this system are trans or gender-non-conforming.
Whereas the response to Feather’s loss of life has been one in every of fast outrage, Dana Kaplan, the chief director of Outright Vermont, believes the group’s youth members will proceed to debate it within the weeks after vigils have ended.
Outright is facilitating a digital and in-person group to satisfy with LGBTQ+ teenagers on Friday and a gathering with youth organizers throughout the state this weekend.
Outright additionally has been listening to from gay-straight alliance educators throughout the state searching for recommendation on find out how to educate about Feather’s loss of life. Kaplan sees it as “actually essential that we not cover the fact of what occurred to younger of us.”
But, regardless of the worry and anxiousness of the second, Kaplan mentioned, “we’re not going to again down from doing the issues that we all know matter. We’re going to stand by the work that we do. We will stand by the celebration and pleasure of being in neighborhood with friends. We’re gonna have a good time our identities and that’s simply as essential.”
A number of vigils have been deliberate to honor Feather, together with:
- In Essex Junction’s 5 Corners, Rep. Rey Garofano, D-Essex, together with native organizers, has deliberate a rally on Saturday from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., in help of the transgender neighborhood throughout the state.
- The Satisfaction Middle is planning to carry a vigil on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Morrisville’s Oxbow Park.
- Fern’s mates are organizing a public celebration for the night time of Friday, April 22 — what could be Feather’s thirtieth birthday — at Orlando’s in Burlington.
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Vermont
Climate Matters: Big victories for greener energy in Vermont – Addison Independent
The Legislature last week achieved several milestones on the way to reducing climate pollution — even in the face of Gov. Phil Scott’s best efforts to keep Vermont stuck in the age of fossil fuels.
A greener Renewable Energy Standard — long a goal of 350Vermont and others — passed despite Gov. Scott’s veto. So did a set of improvements to Act 250 that will open some towns and cities to much needed residential development while better protecting the biodiversity of sensitive areas.
In the process, Scott’s anti-environmental vetoes have placed him even to the right of some of his natural allies. More on that below. First, a little background.
It used to be that veto overrides were as rare in Vermont as snowstorms in July. But in Montpelier these past two years, it’s been snowing all summer. Gov. Scott has been lobbing veto snowballs at the General Assembly, and legislators have responded with an avalanche of overrides.
Scott, a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, has had six vetoes overridden during each of the past two legislative sessions.
This year, the governor even went after the birds and the bees. He vetoed (and was overridden on) a bill banning neonicotinoid pesticides that contribute to the decline of vital pollinators. He declined to sign two bills that became law: VPIRG’s “make big oil pay” bill, and a bill to protect wetlands and floodplains from the more extreme weather of our deteriorating climate.
Now back to Scott’s rightward shift as the climate crisis worsens.
His vetoes of Act 250 changes and the Renewable Energy Standard (RES) came even though traditionally conservative power blocs supported the bills.
The RES, for example, was endorsed by virtually all the state’s utilities, which are normally political allies of the Republican governor. Much of the hard work to improve the RES was accomplished in a working group that included the utilities and was headed by Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, and Addison County Sen. Chris Bray.
Under the new RES, Vermont is committed to achieving nearly 100% renewable electrical energy by 2030. The law also aims to double the amount of clean energy (mostly solar and wind) produced in the state and regionally. It will mean more green jobs and less burning of dirty oil and gas.
On revisions to Act 250, Scott also found himself to the right of political allies. The bill he vetoed drew support not just from environmental groups but also from the development industry and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. In a statement supporting its passage, the chamber said a portion of the bill was “a top priority for the Vermont business community.”
Perhaps overlooked in all this were two other achievements pushed by 350Vermont and others.
The grassroots group recognized the potential of thermal energy networks to generate cleaner community energy and use it more efficiently. That approach, which avoids the need for burdensome bureaucracy, gained approval this session. So, too, did a study committee to suggest ways to protect lower-income Vermonters from electricity rate hikes.
Vermonters have a lot to celebrate at the end of this biennium. Working as a tighter coalition, advocates pushed the General Assembly to approve substantial climate legislation — and to make those approvals stick during the difficult task of overriding multiple vetoes.
Joan Baez used to sing of “little victories and big defeats.” Too often that’s been the experience for the climate movement even here in the Green Mountain State. This year, though, Vermonters can sing a song of big victories.
Vermont
Girls on the Run Vermont celebrates 25th anniversary – The Charlotte News
Girls on the Run Vermont, a statewide nonprofit organization for girls in third-eighth grade, wrapped up its 25th anniversary season that served 1,683 girls across the state.
Twenty-five years ago, 15 girls at Vernon Elementary School enrolled in the Girls on the Run program. Since then, the program has served 39,000 girls and is thriving.
Program participants, alumnae, coaches, parents, board members and supporters attended two statewide 5K events in June to enjoy the non-competitive, community-based events on June 1 at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction, and on June 7 in Manchester.
Proceeds from the 5K events benefit Girls on the Run Vermont’s Every Girl Fund. This fund helps to ensure that every girl in Vermont can participate. This year’s 5K events brought together a combined 4,000 attendees, including program participants, family, friends and community members.
One participant at each 5K event was honored and presented with the Girls on the Run Vermont Rick Hashagen Alumni Scholarship Award in the amount of $2,500. Cordelia King from Fairfax was recognized in Essex and Alexandra Gregory of Dummerston was recognized in Manchester. These scholarships are renewable for up to three more years and offer up to $10,000 in total to support their education post high school.
Find out more about Girls on the Run Vermont.
Vermont
He flipped off a trooper and got charged. Now Vermont is on the hook for $175K
ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was charged with a crime for giving a state trooper the middle finger in 2018, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021 by the ACLU of Vermont on behalf of Gregory Bombard, of St. Albans. It says Bombard’s First Amendment rights were violated after an unnecessary traffic stop and retaliatory arrest in 2018.
Trooper Jay Riggen stopped Bombard’s vehicle in St. Albans on Feb. 9, 2018, because he believed Bombard had shown him the middle finger, according to the lawsuit. Bombard denied that but says he did curse and display the middle finger once the initial stop was concluded.
Bombard was stopped again and arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, and his car was towed. He was jailed for over an hour and cited to criminal court, according to the ACLU. The charge was eventually dismissed.
Under the settlement signed by the parties this month, the state has agreed to pay Bombard $100,000 and $75,000 to the ACLU of Vermont and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression for legal fees.
“While our client is pleased with this outcome, this incident should never have happened in the first place,” said Hillary Rich, staff attorney for the ACLU of Vermont, in a statement. “Police need to respect everyone’s First Amendment rights — even for things they consider offensive or insulting.”
The Vermont State Police did not have a comment on the settlement. Vermont did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the deal.
Bombard said in a statement provided by the ACLU that he hopes the Vermont State Police will train its troopers “to avoid silencing criticism or making baseless car stops.”
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