Emma Mulvaney-Stanak on making history as the 1st queer woman elected as Burlington’s mayor

On Tuesday, Burlington voters elected Emma Mulvaney-Stanak to be the Queen City’s next mayor. The 43-year-old Progressive/Democrat who grew up in Barre City succeeds Democrat Miro Weinberger, who has been mayor since 2012 and did not run for reelection.Mulvaney-Stanak will be the first woman and the first openly queer person to serve as Burlington’s mayor when she is sworn in on April 1. She is also a state representative from Burlington and has served on the Burlington City Council. She has directed the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, been an organizer with Vermont-NEA and was chair of the Vermont Progressive Party. She runs a social change strategy consulting business whose clients include labor unions, nonprofits, municipalities and school districts. She lives with her wife and two children in Burlington’s Old North End.Growing up in Vermont, Mulvaney-Stanak said, “I did not see leaders who held identities that I hold. And that really matters because there was a subconscious level where you don't think that's possibly something you can do.”“The historic nature of this race — the fact that after 159 years, we finally have a woman mayor, after 159 years, we finally have an out LGBTQ+ mayor — that really matters,” she said. “And I'm pretty darn sure that I am the first queer mayor in the entire state of Vermont.”"The fact that I am a mom of two small kids, the fact that I am a woman, the fact that I am a queer person, it brings a very different perspective to the decision making table and also the leadership role in the city,” Mulvaney-Stanak said.