Out In The Mountains : News - PRIDE Recharged, VT Parade Set for July

     In a major departure from 21 years of lesbian and gay pride history in Vermont, the newly recharged Pride committee has scheduled the 2004 Pride parade and festival for Saturday, July 10. The reason for the scheduling was given by PRIDE Committee Co-chair Lee Kahrs as, "It's after the July 4th weekend, and it doesn't conflict with other states' Pride celebrations."
     Kahrs, in a phone interview, said the PRIDE Committee's membership is almost completely new, with Mary Abar the only holdover from last year. "We don't have any transfolk, but other than that we're pretty covered [in diversity] by age, gender, and sexuality,"she said. Michael Glidden is the other PRIDE co-chair.
     The new committee is not attempting "to re-invent the wheel," but will build on the processes and experiences of the former committee members. Among the committee's goals is getting a web site up and running by the end of January. Another goal is getting the word out and recruiting volunteers.
     "We're putting a new, positive, energetic spin on this one day for Vermont," Kahrs, a journalist working for a mainstream daily, explained. "We'll invite all the [political] candidates. We're not going for a statewide series of events, but we're inviting everyone to come" from across Vermont.
     Kahrs is a relative newcomer to Vermont, although she and her family spent summers in Addison. She was a stage manager in Manhattan in September 2001, and decided it was time to leave when jobs evaporated in the months after the World Trade Center
attacks.
     Speaking about the Pride parade, she said, "We want to raise the roof, make it fun again, increase participation. The energy on the committee is really good."
     The PRIDE Committee is organized into four sub-committees: the parade; the waterfront; advertising and media; and fundraising. There are currently nine "full-time" committee members, Kahrs said, and they will be recruiting volunteers for the subcommittees.