Two Pride Center of Vermont board members have resigned amid growing uproar over the proposed Mister Sister gay bar in Winooski.
The board members, Bailey Cummings and Timber Adamson, told Seven Days Tuesday that they wanted the Pride Center to issue a statement criticizing the name of the bar, which they view as an insult to trans women.
Instead, the board’s executive committee decided to hold a town meeting-style forum on trans issues Thursday and get more feedback from the community. The resigning board members saw that as a cop-out.
“Basically the name of this bar is a transmisogynistic slur,” Cummings said. “And I feel strongly as community leaders that the Pride Center is responsible for standing up for our trans community members, and coming out against a slur.”
Adamson cited similar reasons for quitting the board of the gay rights group.
“I can’t continue to support an organization that doesn’t feel the need to stand up and make a statement in regards to a transphobic slur in our community,” Adamson said.
The resignations came after the executive committee of the board met Monday night. Members considered three possible statements but ultimately decided to get more input before taking a public position, said Paul Sisson, co-chair of the board.
He expressed dismay about the two resignations, which drop the board from nine to seven people. He noted the board is composed of volunteers.
“We’re doing the best we can to manage a crisis situation we kind of got thrust into on Sunday,” Sisson said. “I think the whole thing is unfortunate.”
The Pride Center has long been supportive of the trans community, Sisson said, adding: “I’m disappointed that we lost two valued board members as a result of this situation.”
The Pride Center issued a statement on the Mister Sister issue later Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the owner of the proposed bar, Craig McGaughan, continued to defend the Mister Sister name. He’s a gay man, and some critics of the name have said he is being insensitive to other members of the LGBTQ community.
He plans to close his wine bar Oak45 after Tuesday and reopen the new bar in the same space on Main Street March 10.
He issued a statement late Monday night indicating he will stick with the name. Tuesday morning, in a brief online exchange with Seven Days, he declined to comment further.
The name is anything but a slur, McGaughan said in the statement.
“Like all names, Mister Sister will have different associations, interpretations and will be perceived differently by individuals. My interpretation of Mister Sister is one of inclusiveness. It is a term that has been used among gays and Drag Queens for decades intended to be positively gender-bending. Mister Sister is for the misters and the sisters, those that identify as both and everyone in between.”
The statement continued: “The official description of Mister Sister is ‘a gay bar for him, her and them.’ I have been very intentional in using a pronoun that isn’t specifically male or female as a way to include anyone that identifies as part of the LGBTQ community.”
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I am pleased to see the PRIDE Center remembered that it was also meant to serve the LGB community. If they had opposed the bar based on a few people who are taking offense to the name it would hardly be representative of community opinion.
Offense-taking is boring. Either there’s been an injury or there hasn’t. And if there has, we have courts to remedy that. But I suspect there hasn’t.
If people really want to understand why this is offensive to transwoman and the transgender community, take some time ,and attended the meeting ,at the senior community center ,at 630, education goes a long ways.
Whats wrong with the name “MISTER SISTER” ???? Yrs and Yrs ago Burlington had a bar called PEARLS..
Are these complainers jealous that they didn’t come up with this idea, because that’s what it sounds like..It’s something when certain people think they can tell a business owner what to name their business and what to do..Last time I looked this is America not some communist country..Instead of trying to stick your nose into some one else business, why not start your own and pick your own name..
Odum – You seem to think that the feelings and responses of Vermonters who have commented here and don’t agree with your take on things are apparently subject to YOUR approval and YOU seem to relish putting them in their place. Here’s the deal, we didn’t start this discussion/argument. Some people decided that how THEY feel should give them some kind of right to be the arbiters of what a business owner can and cannot name his business and they decided to make a circus out of it and bring it to the attention of the media in the hopes of forcing/shaming him into doing what they want him to do. Somehow, it would seem, you and people like you seem to feel that YOUR feelings and opinions should dictate other peoples business decisions. In reality, if you and your friends don’t like/approve of something the business owner is doing then your recourse is to not patronize that business. Its really pretty simple. But since you have all chosen to take this fight public then you all need to expect that people will publicly disagree with you and call out the bullying/shaming behavior of those that started the argument. Transmisogynistic slur? What nonsense! Its time for people to put to their big boy/girl pants and stop playing the victim. Nobody is slurring anyone. Its a fun name for what will hopefully be a fun place.
I like the name, actually.
Fascinating how the feelings and responses of trans Vermonters seem uniquely subject to everyone else’s approval. Enthusiastic approval, even, given how much relish both the owner and so many commenters seem to take in “putting them in their place” (that place being irrelevance, apparently).
This is just hysterical. These entitled, overly sensitive, self righteous nincompoops resign in sanctimonious fury – good riddance. Here’s the deal – its not your business so you don’t have a say in what it’s named. If the trans community doesn’t like the name, well, tough. They don’t have to go there. Many of us in the gay community are getting a little sick of the whole and constant victim mentality in the trans community. We’ve tried to be inclusive but the trans community is perpetually offended by something. I’m looking forward to hanging out at Vermont’s newest gay bar! If the trans community doesn’t like it, they can put their money where their mouth is and open a trans bar and call it whatever they’d like!
What Jana said!
I confess, I know very little about trans history and have usually buttoned my lip and felt ignorant rather than make my trans friends suffer my impertinent questions. I thought the name was charming and had no idea it had a history as a slur. But honestly, if it was me, I’d mourn my clever name and sigh a little over my good intentions, then pay the $50 to register a new name. Because really, how many tears will it cost me? And how much will it matter to embattled trans folk who just want to feel like they matter? That decision just sounds pretty easy to me.