Burlington Gay Scene

Jackie Stickley
03.13.21

Burlington has always broadcast itself as a very progressive, open-minded community, welcoming to people of all races, creeds, colors, and religions. In particular, Burlington has a reputation for being gay-friendly. Just last month, the world’s leading LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual) publication, The Advocate, named Burlington the second “gayest city in America.” However, it lacks a key factor that every other city on that list has—a gay bar.

The title of the second gayest city in the U.S. is partially justifiable. Burlington is in fact very open-minded. On April 7, 2009, Vermont became the fourth state, after Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, to legalize gay marriage. The legislature over-ruled Governor Jim Douglas’ veto of the gay marriage bill and the law went into affect in September 2009.

The City of Burlington has numerous LGBT support systems with specific focuses and missions. RU12? and Outright Vermont are organizations downtown that both advocate for the rights of the gay community. All three colleges in the Burlington area—UVM, Champlain College, and St. Michael’s College—have some sort of LGBT support, which goes a long way in creating a safe environment for gay students.

Dylan Kunkel, a senior at UVM has been involved with UVM’s LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Questioning, and Allies) Services since day one. Over the course of four years, he has worked with several LGBT programs at UVM, including Free2B, an LGBTQA Club on campus funded by the Student Government Association, and P.R.I.D.E (People Recognizing Identity Differences for Equality) housing program.

“I believe Burlington is a gay friendly community in the way that it is a young town, and with youth usually comes understanding and a thirst for knowledge,” Kunkel explained. “Burlington would be considered a liberal or democratic town and with that label comes a sense of security.”

Simply having a sense of security in a location does not necessarily make it a perfect place to live. The social factor is arguably as important as the acceptance factor when considering where to settle. The Burlington community may be accepting to the homosexual lifestyle, yet the gay community does not have a place of their own. Every other city mentioned in the Advocate’s “Gayest City” article has gay clubs—even the cities ranked much lower. True, Burlington is substantially smaller than every other city listed but, considering the almost obscene number of bars in Burlington’s downtown, it seems strange that not one bar is dedicated to the sprawling local gay community.

Burlington has not always been gay bar-less. For 22 years, the gay bar Pearl 135 on Pearl St. hosted the gay community at night. However, due to management issues, its doors were closed on June 3, 2006 and it was unceremoniously turned into a Papa John’s chain pizza shop. Three and a half years later and there has been no replacement bar.

Briefly, South Burlington hosted a gay locale called Two Friends Bistro. Opened on February 6, 2009, Two Friends was seemingly destined to doom from the start, partially because its location was so far from downtown, but also because it catered to such a narrow clientele. They were forced to shut their doors a few months later. Kunkel claims that they were unfriendly to the younger set and its customer base completely lacked college students.

“The atmosphere consisted of older men, most of which were friends of the owners, and only a handful of women,” he elaborated. “There was no dance floor, no drink specials, and no tolerance for fun. The bar missed the market, the market being the college crowd and women!”

What has resulted is an underground gay scene. Certain bars downtown, such as 3 Needs, Drink, and the Green Room, tend to attract a gay crowd on the weekends, but are still straight-oriented bars. There is no guarantee that the entire crowd will be gay. Higher Ground, in South Burlington, is the only place that does consistently hold gay-specific events. First Fridays and Third Saturdays every month are dance parties especially aimed at the gays and lesbians. Unfortunately, since the venue is not walking distance of downtown, a large portion of the community is left out.

The question then becomes, how does a gay person new to the scene know where to go? None of these bars advertise their gay crowd and Higher Ground does little to market their LGBT nights. Word of mouth and Facebook is the answer. Kunkel mentioned a Facebook group he checks to find where others in the gay community will be hanging out:

“There is a Facebook group that sends out invites for “Guerrilla Queer Bars,” he said. “[About once a month] a bar is chosen in Burlington that will be the token gay bar for the night.”

The most effective way someone new to the scene can learn what is up is to get out there and meet people, whether through some sort of LGBT organization or Facebook group.

“Meeting people equals learning about the scene,” Kunkel summed it up simply.

He would like to see bars stepping up to the plate and advertising themselves as gay friendly, however, an action that would hopefully weed out the small percentage of people in Burlington that are homophobic.

“It would be awesome to see every bar [that is] willing to consider themselves gay friendly throw a sticker up on their window or door.”
Despite the fact that the LGBT community does not have a gay-specific bar to go to, the accepting nature of Burlington usually allows homosexuals to freely express themselves in public without having to worry about discrimination.

“I think that it is important to have a place to call home, so to say, but at the same time, I think it is an even better feeling to know I can walk into about 60% of the bars downtown holding my boyfriend’s hand and not [feel] nervous,” Kunkel commented.

The open-mindedness of the majority of Burlington’s residents and bar owners demonstrates that a gay bar may not even be necessary. The gay scene may be underground in Burlington, but it is thriving nonetheless. According to Kunkel, “As for the lack of gay bars, that doesn’t mean the scene is dead.”