Middlebury’s disinterest and oftentimes hostility towards LGBTQ+ students and faculty is reflected in the ideological makeup of some members of its faculty who hold high-profile academic positions. Its administration protects these faculty members regardless of harm done to queer and trans students.
Author: Emily Rose
Evelyn Mae Sorensen, the oldest of three children, came from a single-parent household and worked several jobs to support herself. She enjoyed biking, photography, and mountaineering, and she was active in advocating for improved mental health services on campus for marginalized and LGBTQ+ communities. From the start of her time at Middlebury College in 2021, she did not feel supported and found a lot to be desired about the school, but she tried to stick it out.
On October 19, Middlebury College student Lia Smith was reported missing, a week after the town of Middlebury celebrated its fourth annual Pride celebration. Four days later, she was found dead.
While Vermont’s top Republican lawmakers called on Douglass to resign, it demonstrates a recent pattern in who Governor Phil Scott, Lieutenant Governor John Rodgers, and the Vermont GOP choose to condemn or not.
For many in Burlington’s LGBTQ+ and progressive communities, Baird’s reputation is not just one of solidarity, but of betrayal.
Watching local Vermont Jewish organizations react to the crisis in Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests in Burlington with victimization, dehumanizing language, and even the outright rejection of anti-Zionist Jews as members of the broader Vermont Jewish community, has affirmed to me, an anti-Zionist trans woman and Jewish Vermonter, that Zionism has completely hollowed out generations of Jewish values, even in Vermont.
While COVID-19 has put a years-long hold on incarcerated Vermonters performing physically grueling and sometimes dangerous labor for little or no money, dozens if not hundreds of Vermont organizations have used this labor as a way to save money, creating an incentive for municipalities to over-police in exchange for cheap labor.
When we look at how some of those services are delivered within the correction system, it’s obvious that folks don’t have any choice in where they get those services, or what price points to get those services at, which creates a real problem when you have very limited resources and an inability to earn those resources. And we also see things costing far more within an incarcerated setting than they might for folks on the outside.
Vermont, like every other state, has contracts between its Department of Corrections and private, for-profit companies to meet incarcerated people’s commissary, media, and telecommunication needs. The State of Vermont allows these corporations to charge prices that far exceed anything paid by Vermonters on the outside. Moreover, the state receives a portion of the proceeds, incentivizing DOC officials to continue the practice without scrutiny or legislative oversight.
In Part 2 of this series, we look at how Vermont’s incarcerated workers are exploited by the State, the Vermont Department of Corrections, and the many nonprofits and municipalities that employ them.
This November, the Vermont Abolish Slavery and Indentured Servitude Amendment to the Vermont State Constitution will be presented to Vermont voters for approval. The bill intends to update Vermont’s Constitution regarding slavery, clarifying that “slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited.”
The Winooski School District’s almost-completed $62 million school expansion project has been in the news for being behind schedule and incurring rising costs. What is likely unknown to the city’s residents and most Winooski school officials is the project’s use of over $400,000 worth of incarcerated labor, worth millions in real labor costs, on average making less than $1 an hour.
Data strongly suggests that while Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George uses progressive language, her office is often in lockstep with local police departments, from arrests to incarceration and restorative justice.
In the middle of a spring marked by widespread anti-trans political action and legislation in the US and heightened transphobic and homophobic violence in Vermont, Wright invited right-wing activist Karlyn Borysenko onto his radio program.
Burlington’s interim Chief of Police Murad has joined ex-NYPD Chief Bill Bratton’s new venture, the Public Safety Research Center (PSRC), as a member of its advisory board. The PSRC has only one listed sponsor, ShotSpotter, a controversial gunfire locator service.
While the city was struggling to raise money to cover its needs, the Weinberger administration gave a break to one of the city’s most elite and exclusive institutions: it provided a $210,000 water bill write-off to the Burlington Country Club (BCC).
On the night of December 11, 2020 spray-painted tombstones with the words “here lies progress” appeared outside the homes of two Burlington city councilors, Chip
As it becomes increasingly likely that Burlington Interim Police Chief Jonathan Murad will be Burlington’s next permanent police chief, residents should know what to expect.
According to records obtained by The Rake Vermont, Joan Shannon solicited Police Chief Jon Murad for a job on behalf of her daughter.
Any observable stretch of time has shown that even Vermont police are prone to lying. Given that police have a vested interest in maintaining their