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Gay bars burlington

LGBTQ/Queer-friendly, tiny bar with room for maybe 30 people if you pack it in. The night I was there (a Thursday), there was house song that was fun, blaring enough to get ruined in, and yet silent enough to have a conversation over. I'd prefer to know how they managed that. Great bartender, extremely friendly and welcoming people. My guess is that at least 1/3 of the people there the night I stopped in were somewhere in the QUILTBAG spectrum, and the people there who appeared to be direct were also very cold. Youngish crowd, but it doesn't have the experience of a college block or a twentysomethings-only hangout. Oh, and to grant you an idea of what a friendly place I found this to be, at about 11:00 someone came out with a birthday cake and candles for the DJ's birthday, and the tune stopped for a limited minutes for us to sing and have some free cake. I walked in expecting to possess a quiet drink and left having made novel friends or at least friendly acquaintances, which isn't something that normally happens to me a lock. Drink prices were (as an example), $5 for a pint of Heady Topper, $11 for a cosmo.

In spring 2006, Vermont’s last bar catering to the LGBTQ+ community, Burlington’s 135 Pearl, closed its doors for good.

Shooka Dooka’s in Rutland closed weeks before. The Rainbow Cattle Corporation in Dummerston shut down years earlier, and the iconic Andrews Inn in Bellows Falls had faded away decades ago. 

But when 135 Pearl announced its closure — the owner cited the struggles of owning a small business — no one knew it would take 15 years to fill the gap it left for LGBTQ+ Vermonters. 

In that moment, the nature of Homosexual rights and identity in Vermont shifted dramatically. In 2009, the state became the first to legalize same-sex marriage by legislative action and passed bills protecting LGBTQ+ people against discrimination.

Vermont now has among the highest rates of LGBTQ+ people in the nation, according to a University of California-Los Angeles survey, with those age 18 to 24 most likely to identify themselves as such, compared with other age groups in Vermont. Yet the state’s small well of bars catering to LGBTQ+ people ran dry — until 2021.

Eight months ago, Fox Market and Bar opened in the tiny, rural community of East Montpelier. The small pub-and-store

Controversial gay bar opens in Winooski

WINOOSKI - Vermont's first gay bar in over a decade welcomed a steady stream of customers when it opened its doors Friday night, despite sparking controversy over the establishment's new name.

"All of the bars in Burlington possess been really welcoming, but there hasn't been a place for us to call our own," owner Craig McGaughan said Friday evening, about half an hour after he opened Mister Sister for the first second. He added he was proud to be competent to offer that place to the community and said the bar means "everything" to him.

He declined to comment further on the controversy regarding the label. Some have criticized the choice because they watch the term as a slur against the trans community.

RELATED: 

LGBT group says Winooski gay bar should select new name

The Pride Center of Vermont held a "trans town hall" to hear from the transsexual community last week. After the meeting, the center issued a statement rebuking the name and calling it "hate speech." The statement was written by board member Bridget Barhight, who was identified as a transgender woman.

"We condemn the use of hate speech in promotional materials and especi

Pride Month: Some of Burlington's LGBTQ-owned businesses set sights on expansion

Not even a pandemic could affect Burlington's only gay bar.

Partners Steve Stoll and Chaz Myhre opened the OhZone, located at 852 Washington St., in September in the midst of COVID-19. 

"We loved coming here when it was Steve's Place," Myhre said. "That's why we bought it."

Steve's Place was not officially a gay bar, but it had always been thought of as a place members of the LGBTQ community could travel to have a wonderful time and feel harmless. When Stoll and Myhre opened it, the block no longer was a "gay-friendly" bar, it was just a gay bar.

Owning OhZone kind of just fell into their laps. Stoll and Myher originally moved to Burlington to oversee one of the stores in Westland Mall. They had always enjoyed hanging out at the aged bar, but there had been talk by the owner that perhaps he would close it. The owner had tried to solicit the pair to have the bar, but they had always declined. 

Finally, the day came the owner said he would deal the bar and that if the pair weren't interested, it would be sold to somebody else. They said they couldn't let Burlington's only homosexual bar go out of business, so they ag

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