The Vermont Senate voted overwhelmgly Monday to legalize same-sex marriage, potentially settg the stage for a high-profile legislative showdown and breakg a new polil barrier the state that ma history 2000 by beg the first to approve civil unns for gay and lbian upl.
Contents:
- GAY RIGHTS GROUPS CELEBRATE VICTORI MARRIAGE PH
- HOW VERMONT'S 'CIVIL' WAR FUELED THE GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT
- GAY MARRIAGE MARKER DITED ON STATEHOE LAWN
- VERMONT LEGISLATURE OKS GAY MARRIAGE
- VERMONT LAWMAKERS LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
- VERMONT BE 4TH U.S. STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
- GEE GAY
GAY RIGHTS GROUPS CELEBRATE VICTORI MARRIAGE PH
Gay rights groups say that momentum om back-to-back victori on same-sex marriage Vermont and Iowa uld spill to other stat. * gay vermont legislature *
___ Brnabic, first openly gay Prime Mister of Serbia. ___ Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay Prime Mister.
The Human Rights Campaign, which scrib self as the natn's largt lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr civil rights anizatn, issued a statement appldg the vot, notg Vermont is the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through the legislative procs. "Ls than five years ago, lbian and gay upl began marryg Massachetts.
Now, wh the Iowa urt cisn last Friday and today's vote Vermont, there will be four stat regnizg the right to marry for lovg, mted lbian and gay upl.
HOW VERMONT'S 'CIVIL' WAR FUELED THE GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT
As the Supreme Court nsirs the nstutnal se for gay marriage, we look back at the role Vermont played jt 13 years ago the historic metamorphosis of the issue. The state's ernor, who wore a bulletproof vt that year, lled "the least civil public bate the state over a century." * gay vermont legislature *
Polk County District Judge Robert Hanson found that the law vlated the state nstutn's guarantee of equal protectn and hurt gay and lbian upl " numero tangible and tangible" ways.
Gay-rights groups say that momentum om back-to-back victori on same-sex marriage Vermont and Iowa uld spill to other stat, particularly sce at least ne other legislatur are nsirg measur this year to allow marriage between gay Vermont Legislature on Tuday overro Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill allowg gay upl to marry, mterg one more vote than need to prerve the step mak Vermont the first state to allow same-sex marriage through legislative actn stead of a urt lg, and ls than a week after the Iowa Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriag that state.
” Silverman/Getty ImagVermont, which 2000 beme the first state to adopt civil unns for gay upl, is now the fourth state to allow same-sex marriage. ”Several groups that oppose same-sex marriage suggted Tuday that the succsive victori for gay rights advot would give the opposn movement new energy. It wasn't so long ago that a handful of Vermont legislators a shabby Statehoe mtee room stggled over what to ll their proposal to give marriage-like rights to the state's gay and lbian rints.
GAY MARRIAGE MARKER DITED ON STATEHOE LAWN
Vermont's Legislature overled Republin Gov. Jim Douglas' veto and beme the fourth state to legalize gay marriage. The Senate voted 23-5 and the Hoe 100-49 to get the two-thirds need each chamber for a veto overri. Ne years ago, Vermont was the first state the natn to approve civil unns. * gay vermont legislature *
But the Legislature Montpelier approved An Act Relatg to Civil Unns, and Dean quietly signed later that sprg, makg the first law the natn to extend marriage-like rights of any kd to gay and lbian upl. Ten stat followed Vermont's early civil unns example and extend to gay upl an array of spoal rights siar to, but short of, marriage.
Most recent polls show that though 31 stat have banned same-sex marriage, a growg majory of Amerins — cludg Print Obama — support marriage law equaly for gay cizens. A Shotgun 'Marriage' Late December 1999, Vermont's high urt jtic cid that two lbian upl and one gay uple were rrect argug that state law nfg marriage to heterosexuals was discrimatory. The job to figure out fell to the Hoe Judiciary Commtee, whose members clud Lippert, then the only openly gay member of the Legislature, and Republin Rep.
VERMONT LEGISLATURE OKS GAY MARRIAGE
The Vermont Legislature on Tuday legalized gay marriage the state by overridg the ernor’s veto. * gay vermont legislature *
At heargs, anti-civil unn activists nounced gays and lbians as abomatns, people who were sure to experience the wrath of God. They warned that approvg civil unns would stabilize "tradnal" marriage" and allow outsirs wh a "homosexual agenda" to propel the state down an immoral path of no return.
Nancy Sheltra, brought anti-gay, anti-abortn activist Randall Terry, who ran his operatn out of a storeont jt down the street om the Statehoe. "It was the most tense nversatn ever about the place of gay and lbian people our muni. They spoke of their fai, some talked about their gay children, and of the Constutn's guarantee of equal protectn unr the law.
"I knew that Bill [Lippert] was gay, and we'd talked about our fai, you know, Bill's fay, his partner, " Edwards says.
VERMONT LAWMAKERS LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
Vermont legalized gay marriage on Tuday after lawmakers overro a veto om the ernor by a wafer-th marg, makg the New England state the fourth the Uned Stat where gays n wed. * gay vermont legislature *
"This was a world that was pletely foreign to me, " Dean, the former ernor, said a 2011 terview wh Vermont Public Televisn scribg his own "sual homophobia" lookg back at the civil unns bate.
"I was unfortable wh gay people, " he told terviewer Christopher Graff, "and wh gay marriage.
" For Lippert, the opportuny to help change how gay and lbian people were viewed was one for the ag. "I was grateful that I had an opportuny to be the voice or to be the face of all the gay and lbian people that I knew, " he said. " Not once, he says now, did he wish he weren't the only openly gay member of the Legislature attemptg to rry out one of the most difficult jobs the state's history.
VERMONT BE 4TH U.S. STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
How Vermont's 'Civil' War Fueled The Gay Marriage Movement.
"You uld have heard a p drop that buildg, and there were a lot of people there that night, " says Sneyd, also openly gay at the time and now news director at Vermont Public Rad and, wh his partner, proprietor of a bed and breakfast.
"There remas afoot Vermont prejudice agast gay men and lbians.... That those who stand bi gay and lbian people as their alli...
GEE GAY
" Gay and lbian Vermonters, he said, are your iends, neighbors and relativ who simply want the rights that everyone else has. No Change/Much Change Vermont weathered the civil unns bate, and the nversatn years later over s gay marriage bill was largely wng of the earlier vrl.
"I don't thk anyone who's not teractg wh the var forms of the gay muny will have noticed a huge difference, " he said, "but was never about a difference we would notice.
Lippert, however, now one of a half-dozen openly gay Vermont legislators, has another take.