RIP: The Ven. J. Stannard Baker, deacon and pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights, dies at 79
The Ven. J. Stannard Baker, a deputy from the Diocese of Vermont and a member of Executive Council, died suddenly on June 23. Photo: Facebook
[Episcopal News Service] The Ven. J. Stannard “Stan” Baker, a deacon at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington, Vermont, and the lead plaintiff in Baker v. Vermont, the 2000 case that established civil unions in Vermont, died late June 23 of an apparent heart attack. He was 79.
He died in Louisville, Kentucky, where he and his husband Peter Harrigan were attending a Barbie convention; Harrigan is an avid collector.
Baker’s death came just hours after he took part by Zoom in the first day of a meeting of The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council, of which he was a member. Executive Council is The Episcopal Church’s governing and oversight body between meetings of General Convention.
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced his death to Council at the beginning of its June 24 session, saying, “Stan was not just a treasured colleague but a fierce advocate for justice.”
Council then observed a moment of silence to remember Baker, who had been elected to the body in 2024. He also served as Council’s liaison to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. Baker was a five-time clergy deputy from the Diocese of Vermont.
House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris told Episcopal News Service, “All of us at Executive Council are grieving today with the loss of our friend and colleague. In every room Stan entered — in committee work, in legislative halls and in the vulnerable spaces of truth-telling, Stan led with deep care, humility and fierce love. His advocacy for LGBTQ+ justice and his work to bring healing to survivors of sexual harassment and abuse have made our common life more honest and more whole.”
She added, “I am deeply grateful for his friendship — and for his vision of and hope for what we as a church can become.”
Vermont Bishop Shannon MacVean-Brown said in a statement, “Stan was an important and historic member of our diocesan household and the state of Vermont. I will always value his contributions to our shared vision and mission. Both in his secular work as a psychotherapist and in his ordained ministry, he brought his insights and sensibilities about people to the forefront of the discussion. I could always count on him to help bring folks together, and I am deeply grateful for his ministry in our diocese. His support and advocacy for our clergy both active and retired will surely be missed.”
Lambda Legal, which works on behalf of LGBTQ+ people through the American justice system, described Baker v. Vermont as a “groundbreaking case seeking the right to marry for same-sex couples in Vermont.”
It noted that it marked “the first time a high court in a marriage case ordered a state legislature to give same-sex couples the same rights, protections, benefits and obligations that different-sex couples get through marriage.”
It also called the case “a critical landmark on the road to marriage equality.”
Baker wrote about the case in July 2014 for the Swarthmore Bulletin – he was a 1968 graduate of Swarthmore College – and said he and his husband decided to file suit against the state “because we fell in love.”
He added that after four years together, “We wanted to have a legal bond joining us, and we wanted to be able to proclaim our love in front of our family and friends. Marriage is a core institution of our society, and being barred from it is akin to losing the right to vote. If anyone is excluded from a right that others have, then no one’s rights are safe.”
The case also included two lesbian couples, but Baker’s name was listed first, alphabetically, prompting the case to be known as Baker v. Vermont or simply, the Baker case.
The Ven. J. Stannard Baker (right) joins Vermont deputies the Rev. Lee Crawford (left) and Tom Little at General Convention in 2024. Photo: Facebook
Tom Little, a 10-time General Convention lay deputy for Vermont and the diocese’s chancellor, helped guide the state’s civil union law through the Legislature in 2000 as a member of the state’s House of Representatives. He also served alongside Baker in Vermont’s General Convention deputation.
In describing Baker he told ENS, “I never met someone with the compassion, overarching sense of humanity and ability to connect with people who needed his care and love.”
Noting Baker’s work as a psychotherapist, Little described Baker accompanying him and his siblings on a hospital visit to one of their brothers. “It was the most empathetic care I ever experienced,” he said..
He said Baker delighted in telling people he was a descendant of some of the Green Mountain Boys who fought in the Revolutionary War. The Vermont towns of Stannard and Bakersfield are connected to his family, Little said.
Baker was ordained a deacon in 2009, and in addition to his diaconal ministry at the cathedral, he served as archdeacon of the Diocese of Vermont. In a biography listed on the Cathedral of St. Paul’s website, he wrote that he had grown up a Quaker but was drawn to The Episcopal Church during the time of his lawsuit, where both he and his husband “felt supported and surrounded by friends.”
In the wider church, he also served as the House of Deputies’ chair of the 2024 General Convention legislative committee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music. From 2016 to 2018, he was a member of the Task Force on the Study of Marriage, and he also served on the 2015 General Convention Special Legislative Committee on Marriage. In the Diocese of Vermont, he had been a member of the Standing Committee.
Baker and Harrigan, a professor of theatre and chair of the fine arts department at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, were married in 2014. They lived with their dog Ginger in Shelburne.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.
