Frequently Asked Questions

St. Albans Pride Corps (SAP Corps) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created to serve the LGBTQ+ community of Franklin County, VT. 

At our core values are: 

• Community
  • This is not just LGBTQ+ community, but local community: our Franklin County community, our Vermont community, our New England community and beyond.
• Accessibility 
  • This is not just disability accessibility, but on all levels: financial, emotional, mental, familial and more.
• Education
  • Knowledge is power, and since the start, Pride has been about taking back and retaining our power from those who wish to oppress us. 

Being very new, St. Albans Pride Corps has many aspirations for how to assist the community going forward. For now, we exist in the capacity of offering a network of resources to connect to, events organized for the community, and keeping apprised of local issues impacting our community. We also continue to connect with local organizations, providers and community members to strengthen the bonds and bridge the gaps between our community– both external and internal. 

Pride Weekend is the three-day LGBTQ+ Pride celebration planned for St. Albans in 2024. Happening June 7-9 of 2024, Pride Weekend will kick off with a Drag Show Friday night, continue with an all-day celebration Saturday with a parade leading into Taylor Park, a Gala that evening at City Hall Auditorium, and wrap up Sunday with an interfaith service in Taylor Park in the morning and an ice cream social in the afternoon. Pride Weekend will be an amalgamation of our past (Remembrance), present (Celebration) and future (Forethought).  

The LGBTQ+ Community Meetings held by SAP Corps are a chance for our community to come together and learn of local happenings, share ideas, and socialize. The goal of these meetings is to have as many voices heard as possible with the events and other plans locally, as well as offer a safe space to get to know fellow members of the community.  Community Meetings are currently held once a month each in St. Albans City; if you'd like to help facilitating a meeting like this in your town, please reach out!

    The eight stripe rainbow flag, otherwise known as the Gilbert Baker Pride Flag or Original Rainbow Flag, was the first widespread iteration of the Rainbow Flag as a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. It overtook the use of the pink triangle, which was originally used as a form of oppression during the Holocaust. 

    The most common iteration of the Rainbow Flag today excludes the pink and turquoise stripes only for practicality in manufacturing, from the time period when those colors were difficult to procure and recreate. As history is such an important part of our community and our mission, we make a conscious choice to use the Original Rainbow Flag colors as each stripe represents something essential to our LGBTQ+ community.

    In 2017, shortly before his passing, Gilbert Baker released a revised version of the flag with an additional lavender stripe representing diversity. Since then the rainbow flag has taken many revisions and reworkings (ie: the Philadelphia eight-stripe flag, the Progress Pride Flag, the Social Justice Pride Flag, and more); each flag means something different to someone, and SAP Corps welcomes and encourages diversity not just in people and experiences but in flag usage as well.

    For more information on Gilbert Baker and the Original Pride Flag, visit 

https://gilbertbaker.com/rainbow-flag-origin-story/