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MEET THE STAFF
Bill Lippert
Founder and Senior Foundation Officer
For
over thirty years, Bill Lippert has been an activist in Vermont
for LGBT civil rights, eliminating homophobia and "establishing
Vermont as a fully just and welcoming community."
During the early 1970's, Bill participated in and subsequently
led Vermont's first ongoing gay men's support group. Later, in
his capacity as a psychologist and substance abuse counselor,
Bill offered Vermont's first statewide trainings on substance
abuse and its impact on the gay community. For a period of years,
Bill was the only openly gay male psychotherapist in Vermont offering
counseling services for gay men.
In 1983, Bill helped organize Vermont's first Gay Pride rally
and march in Burlington, and later that year helped establish
Vermonters for Lesbian and Gay Rights (VLGR), Vermont's first
gay political organization. Bill subsequently served as a Co-Chair
of its successor organization, the Vermont Coalition for Lesbian
and Gay Rights (VCLGR).
During the late 1980's Bill was active in the lobbying effort
for Vermont's gay civil rights bill, which passed the legislature
in 1991. In 1990, Bill was a founding board member of Outright
Vermont, organized to serve the unmet needs of LGBTQA youth, and
for many years served on the board of Vermont's largest AIDS service
organization, VT CARES.
In an effort to create and leverage new and permanent financial
resources for Vermont LGBT organizations, in 1992, along with
Burlington attorney and fellow activist David Curtis, Bill co-founded
a gay community foundation, now known as Samara Foundation of
Vermont.
Since 1994, Bill has served in the Vermont House of Representatives,
as an openly gay legislator, representing the Town of Hinesburg.
Serving as the Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee in
2000, Bill was instrumental in the work to write, debate and pass
Vermont's historic Civil Union law.
Vermont
Civil Unions, for the first time anywhere in the United States,
granted legal recognition to lesbian and gay couples, conferring
on them all of the same rights and responsibilities available
through the Vermont marriage statutes. Read Bill
Lippert's speech made on March 15, 2000 on the floor of the
Vermont House of Representatives.
For his legislative work in establishing Civil Unions, Bill was
recognized by the Vermont Democratic Party with their David
W. Curtis Leadership Award as the Vermont Elected Official
of Year 2000. Bill has also been recognized for his legislative
civil unions work with an award from Northeast Action,
a New England-wide progressive activist coalition, and was named
NASW Legislator of the Year from the Vermont Chapter
of the National Association of Social Workers.
Bill
continues to serve in the Vermont House of Representatives, where
in 2005 he was appointed chair of the House Judiciary Committee,
as well as elected as chair of the House/Senate Joint Judicial
Retention Committee.
Bill is a central Pennsylvania native, where he grew up in the
Susquehanna River valley. He graduated from Earlham College (Richmond,
Indiana) in 1972 with a B.A. in History. Since first coming to
Vermont for a hiking trip on the Long Trail in August, 1972, Bill
has made Vermont his home. Bill has lived in Hinesburg since 1979,
where he lives with his partner, Enrique Peredo.
From 1973 - 1996 Bill worked for the Counseling Service of Addison
County in Middlebury, VT, serving as Executive Director for 12
years. Along the way, he was awarded an M.A. in Counseling Psychology
from Antioch New England Graduate School in Professional Psychology
in 1979.
In addition to serving in the VT Legislature, Bill works part-time
as the Founder and Senior Foundation Officer for Samara Foundation of Vermont.
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