Taylor Small Receives International Politician of the Year Award
Taylor Small, an associate with The Creative Discourse Group, was awarded the Politician of the Year award by One Young World, an organization that cultivates a global community of young political, business, and humanitarian leaders. Taylor, a legislator in the Vermont House, representing Burlington and Winooski, was recognized as one of “five of the world's most outstanding politicians between the ages of 18 - 35, who are using their positions to have a positive impact on young people in their communities and countries.”
Taylor traveled to Manchester, England in September 2022 to receive the award at the annual One Young World Summit which brings together over 2000 young leaders with delegates from over 190 countries.
During her acceptance speech, Taylor shared these words: “We as young people have the innate ability and desire to take risks. We are biologically designed to do so. Risks can lead to mistakes and failures but those mistakes and failures and the learning that we gain from them in the process leads us to the transformational change that we all seek to make.”
In her speech Taylor also encouraged marginalized people and especially women to get engaged in politics. In an interview with VT Digger, Taylor shared, “I think what we don’t fully recognize yet is the marginalization of young people in politics…how often we are tokenized or celebrated on a small scale but aren’t given those full leadership benefits.”
The full 3-minute speech can be watched here. The interview in VT Digger can be read here.
Shared in a Vermont Progressive Party newsletter is as a statement offered by One Young World about Taylor’s accomplishments:
“New to the political scene, Representative Taylor Small was elected in November 2020 and now serves as Vermont's first out transgender legislator and one of seven in the United States. Representative Small has been a strong advocate for marginalized, especially LGBTQ+, people in both her professional and personal lives, as a health & wellness program director for Pride Center of Vermont and a local drag entertainer. In her first year in office, Representative Small was able to pass a bill into law banning the use of the 'LGBTQ+ Panic Defence' in Vermont with unanimous support from the House, Senate, and Republican Governor.”
As an associate with TCDG, Taylor has been engaged in client projects with Burlington Community Justice Center, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, Maple Run School District, Summit Properties, to name a few.
