By Guy Page
Dear Vermont State House leaders:
By now you all know that yesterday, Transtifa stormed a scheduled meeting in a reserved Room 11 and prevented volunteer Vermonters from telling their story about detransitioning. There, in the People’s House, only some of the People were permitted to be heard, and the Sergeant At Arms you elected for “maintaining order and decorum in the building” did nothing to stop their raucous shouting and singing.
People who worked hard for weeks to stage the event were unable to be heard.
People who traveled from as far as Bennington to learn, were unable to even hear.
To the dismay of many present, myself included, your State House Powers that Be enabled this depriving of freedom of speech. And hours later, the majority leaders of House and Senate explicitly defended it.
Free speech deniers, we’ve got your back!
Sure, it’s your job to run the State House as you think best. But let me say two things.
First, if this is your idea of leadership, running the State House may not be your job much longer. November 2026 is 20 months away. Voting Vermonters now know that if you allow the shouters and screamers to drown out someone else today, you will stand by, holding the cloaks of those who do it to them tomorrow.
Second, don’t ever preach to me about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion again.
When one point of view is shouted down in the People’s House because the ruling majority is too likeminded or merely fearful to object, there is no Diversity. Just a mob with a megaphone.
When any group is singled out for silencing and public shaming, there is no ‘equity,’ according to the dictionary definition as ‘the state or quality of being just and fair.’
Inclusion? Yesterday’s travesty “included” the Vermont Family Alliance in a public word stoning promoted, aided, abetted, and subsequently endorsed by members of the legislative majority.
And yes, shame on any minority members of House and Senate and the State House media who so inexplicably fear the wrath of this intolerant ‘community’ that they lower their eyes and say nothing.
Yesterday, you State House bosses shouted to the sculpted ceilings of their respective chambers for all to hear: Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity are only for some. For the out-of-favor, you preach UEU: Uniformity, Exclusion, and Unfairness.
Long may Vermonters remember.
And may YOU remember: when our First Amendment rights are threatened, we can shout, too.