Updated at 7:42 p.m.
RUTLAND CITY — Hundreds of people over the weekend toasted to the smashing success of the Rutland County Pride festival at Bailey’s Place, a new bar and lounge space for LGBTQ+ residents in the Marble City.
Several thousand people attended the third annual Rutland County Pride event on June 21 to enjoy the day’s activities and nearly 100 vendors provided food and goods for the crowd, said William Fourney-Mills, executive director of the Rutland County Pride Center.
Around 500 people dropped by the bar, which opened in April, according to Bailey’s Place co-owner Faith McClure.
Bailey’s Place is only one of a handful of bars in Vermont founded for the purpose of creating a space for their local LGBTQ+ communities, according to McClure. In 2021, Fox Market and Bar in East Montpelier ended a nearly 15-year drought of LGBTQ+ bars in the state, and Foxy’s in Barre joined the slim ranks of Vermont’s LGBTQ+ bars in 2024.
The building for Bailey’s Place on Evelyn Street was briefly Prouty’s Parlor ice cream shop and before that housed the bars Strangefellows, which closed around the Covid-19 pandemic, and Shooka Dookas, which closed in 2006, according to McClure.
While Shooka Dookas and Strangefellows evolved into de-facto gay bars, Bailey’s Place is the first designated LGBTQ+ bar to open in Rutland City, McClure said.
The 21-year-old owner said it was important for her to designate Bailey’s Place as an LGBTQ+ lounge in Rutland, as she hopes to create a space that is “all inclusive.” Bailey’s Place gained its moniker from her family’s nickname for McClure “Buddha Bailey“ — dubbed for her laughing buddha statuesqueness as a newborn. The shortened name Bailey stuck, and she associates the bar’s name with being “fat and happy,” she said.
McClure said her stepfather and co-owner Fred Watkins helped rehabilitate the Bailey’s Place property, which occupies a historic building in Rutland City’s downtown near the train station. `
“There’s a lot of spaces downtown that I feel like could be revitalized to be welcoming community spaces like this,” McClure said. “I’ve had other queer people in the community come up to me, and they’ll say this to me directly going, ‘Oh, there’s not really a whole lot of spaces in Rutland. If there is the closest one is like, three hours away.’”
During Rutland’s Pride festivities over the weekend, the bar and lounge offered karaoke, a DJ and drag performances, along with food and drinks throughout Saturday night. McClure said 25% of the proceeds from sales of its cocktail special, a strawberry lemon drop, are set to be allocated to the Rutland County Pride Center.
“People loved the performers over at Bailey’s. People were digging karaoke,” she said. “We were really happy that everyone had a good time.”
During the daytime Pride events, McClure also operated a Bailey’s Place booth along with dozens of vendors lining the streets of Rutland City’s downtown.
The festival organized by the Rutland County Pride Center kicked off with speeches from U.S. Rep. Becca Baliant, the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Congress; Christine Halquist, the first transgender Democratic nominee for Vermont governor; Mia Shultz, the president of the Rutland County NAACP; and city officials.
McClure said people at the Pride festival were “pretty focused on the joy” of the day but that it’s important to celebrate Pride amid growing concerns over government actions limiting LGBTQ+ rights across the country.
“It lets people know that in these hard times with our country, with what the government’s doing with the rights of those in the LGBTQ+ community, that there are still people like Bailey’s (that) are going to be around for as long as the community will allow us to be,” McClure said.
Fourney-Mills said they are concerned about the funding cuts to federal agencies that hinder services for the LGBTQ+ community in the case of the Trump administration ending a specialized LGBTQ+ youth sucicide prevention hotline and investments in HIV-related research. The Rutland County Pride Center continues to offer resources and community events year round, Fourney-Mills said.
“In times like these, we need to stand up and let ourselves be seen as a community,” Fourney-Mills said. “One thing about the queer community is the resiliency and that we do come together to celebrate together, and especially now with the attacks on trans youth and trans adults, we know we need to make sure that all of our community is safe.”
McClure said her long-term goal is to expand or move into a bigger space to accommodate dancing and larger celebrations. In the meantime, McClure said she and her team have been working one day at a time to renovate the bar, refine the food and drink menu, and host trivia nights and other events to attract new customers.
“It’s nice to know for the Rutland community that there’s something in your backyard,” she said.
