At noon on Oct. 1, a crowd surrounded Burlington Fire Department’s Engine 6, parked on Church Street and decorated with bright rainbow banners.
Outright Vermont’s annual fire truck pull has been taking place since 2005. The mood was festive at the LGBTQ+ youth advocacy organization’s biggest fundraiser. There were families, children, pets, supportive businesses and student groups. There was loud music, dancing, silly costumes and face paint.
And, for the first time in the history of the event, according to Outright’s executive director, Dana Kaplan, there were also protesters.
As an emcee kicked off the event, a handful of people lifted signs with transphobic messages. Almost immediately, supporters of the transgender community swarmed the protesters and lifted an array of flags — including a large light blue, pink and white one, the transgender pride flag — to hide the anti-trans slogans.
Outright supporters were perhaps prepared this time because of a similar provocation involving some of the same people, which took place at the Vermont Pride Parade on Sept. 18. That incident — in which an anti-trans protest devolved into a physical altercation — garnered widespread coverage among rightwing outlets.
Much of the subsequent vitriol has been aimed at Vemont’s LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, including Outright Vermont and the Pride Center of Vermont.
“It wasn’t shocking,” Kaplan said in an emailed statement, referring to the fire truck pull protest. “Because the protestors made visible the fact that no matter where LGBTQ+ youth live in Vermont, they experience violence, the constant threat of harm, and a continuous barrage of messages that target them, telling them they’re not valued, cared for, or allowed to exist.”
The situation echoes a recent incident in Randolph, where a transgender high school volleyball player and her family have reported receiving an onslaught of transphobic messages. The harassment followed a WCAX story that focused on a teammate objecting to the girl’s use of the team’s locker room. The story was picked up by Fox News, the New York Post and other outlets, leading to a barrage of abusive rhetoric aimed at the girl and her family.
“We don’t need to look any farther than what’s happening in the Randolph situation to see that there are coordinated efforts that are happening nationally and internationally,” Kaplan said.
Pride protest
Fred Sargeant, of New Haven, calls himself a “gay American same-sex rights activist.” He is also a vocal anti-transgender activist. The retired police officer attended the Vermont Pride Parade on Sept. 18 bearing a sign with the words “Black Face” and “Woman Face” crossed out in red.
In social media posts made prior to the parade, Sargeant announced he was heading to Burlington to protest the parade and shared a meme that read, “Wait’ll they get a load of me.”
Afterward, Sargeant said he was assaulted at the event, claiming that people poured coffee on him, slapped the back of his head and pushed an umbrella into his back.
A short video posted to Facebook showing one angle of an incident at that parade shows an unidentified person struggling to take Sargeant’s sign in the middle of a large crowd. Christopher-Aaron Felker, the chair of the Burlington Republican Party, stands close by and confronts the person while filming on his phone. Sargeant appears to remain standing in the 13-second clip, but in posts online, he said he was knocked to the ground.
Acting Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad confirmed that there is an active investigation into the incident.
Sargeant denied VTDigger’s interview requests, but in a YouTube interview and other public statements, he has claimed that members of Outright Vermont were responsible for the alleged assault.
Kaplan said if members of the organization were, in fact, responsible, “They acted alone and without our knowledge.”
“While the urge — and for some, need — to respond to blatant messages of personal and transphobic hate targeting our community are warranted, how we do so matters,” Kaplan continued. “We do not condone violence, ever.”
In the aftermath of the incident, Sargeant posted frequently about it on his Facebook page, including pictures of people who had confronted him and, in some cases, making transphobic comments about them.
On Sept. 19, LGB Alliance, a British group opposing transgender rights with which Sargeant and Felker are involved, tweeted about the incident. A day later, accounts of the incident, citing Sargeant’s Facebook posts, appeared in conservative publications including the National Review and The Daily Caller. Author J.K. Rowling, who has previously made transphobic statements, tweeted in support of Sargeant. The stories and Rowling’s tweet emphasized Sargeant’s status as a “gay rights icon.”
Sargeant has also emphasized his role in the gay rights movement, including his participation in the Stonewall riots, an early uprising for gay rights in New York City in 1969. In public statements, Sargeant has denied that he is “anti-trans” but said he “will not take a backseat to anyone in the movement that we created.”
Sargeant has continued his push against transgender people, but since the incident at the Pride Parade has specifically and repeatedly called out both Outright Vermont and Pride Center of Vermont, which organized the event. In interviews with another anti-transgender activist on YouTube, Sargeant referred to Outright multiple times as “brownshirts,” an apparent reference to Nazis, and also said that “what they let loose on the streets of Burlington was a gang.”
One day before the fire truck pull, Felker issued a press release stating that Sargeant would be protesting the event, claiming that he was “physically assaulted and robbed” by members of Outright.
Felker, who is gay, was called out during an unsuccessful run for the Burlington City Council last year when Seven Days revealed anti-trans social media posts he authored.
Felker also arrived at Mayor Miro Weinberger’s office on Thursday to demand that Burlington’s top official make a “full throated condemnation of the apparent hate-motivated assault of Mr. Sargeant.” Felker said the mayor’s office declined the meeting. Weinberger’s office confirmed that Felker’s request for a meeting was denied.
Sargeant also described the Pride Center as a “potentially violent group” in the YouTube interview, and later in a public statement said “Burlington Pride has now become a platform for misogyny, exclusion and hate.”
The organization’s executive director, Mike Bensel, described the center in a different way.
“The Annual Vermont Pride Festival and Parade is about the celebration of LGBTQ+ Identities, the joy we share in our connections, and a recognition of the strides we have made towards liberation,” Bensel said in an emailed statement. “The spirit of the day is grounded in creating access, visibility, and togetherness among the LGBTQ+ and greater allied communities of Vermont.”
Bensel also said the group was aware of the incident at the parade.
“Pride Center staff were not involved and did not witness the incident. We are currently working to gain more clarity regarding the situation,” Bensel said. “While we’re still learning the details, it is important to state that we do not condone written or physical acts of harm.”
There have been other recent examples of local members of the gay and lesbian community lashing out against the transgender rights movement.
In another city council race earlier last year, Peggy Luhrs, who described herself as a feminist and lesbian, was also criticized for making anti-transgender comments. Luhrs died earlier this year.
“Even in a progressive state, hate can thrive when unchecked,” Kaplan said. He said Outright works to support transgender youth and allow their identity to be something that is “celebrated, embraced, and powers them through life.”
“We won’t let adults who bully kids get in the way of that,” he said.
