Expert: David Beckett - 7/6/2008

Question
Hello from the SF Bay Area...Oakland to be exact.  I'm from Rhode Island but have lived here in the Bay Area for 20 years.  I miss the seasons and a slower life and am thinking of exploring Burlington as a place to live. How gay is Burlington?  Is there a viable gay culture?  Are gay people threatened there?  THANKS

Answer
Hi Anthony -

Please forgive the delay - I've been in Montreal for 10 days and forgot to set an away message here at this forum...my apologies.

Here are some personal observations and a couple of links you may find interesting.

You'll also want to look at my archive of questions answered here: I've addressed similar questions on several occasions

First - The Burlington area seems pretty cosmopolitan these days, and quite welcoming to all sorts of people. I think if you liked it here, you'd be unlikely to find being gay was an impediment. We're a small city indeed though, compared to, say, Oakland of course. But Burlington's arts and culture scene is perhaps the most vibrant of any city in the country it's size.

For some reason, Burlington seems (to me, at least) a very popular place for lesbians, but somewhat less so for gay men. I'm not sure why this is so, or even if I'm entirely correct about this. At gay pride events this might not seem the case, but day to day, It often feels like there are fewer gay men out and about than gay women...   

I hope this attempt at answering your questions is helpful. Here are a couple of links for you as well...

http://www.7dvt.com/
(search this site - either with keywords, or just for events and so on. It's a terrific source for local info)

http://www.sec.state.vt.us/otherprg/civilunions/civilunions.html
(I believe VT was first in the nation to recognize civil unions, which says something about the State)

I hope this helps,
David Beckett