How Vermont's 'Civil' War Fueled The Gay Marriage Movement : NPR

Contents:

• VERMONT BE 4TH STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW VERMONT'S 'CIVIL' WAR FUELED THE GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT
• VERMONT LEGISLATURE OKS GAY MARRIAGE
• VERMONT LAWMAKERS LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
• HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE
• VERMONT BE 4TH U.S. STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
• FACTBOX: LIST OF STAT THAT LEGALIZED GAY MARRIAGE

VERMONT BE 4TH STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE

BOSTON (Rters) - 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 MARRIAGE

The vote, ne years after Vermont was first the Uned Stat to adopt a same-sex civil-unn law, also mak the ty state of 624, 000 people the first the natn to troduce gay marriage through legislative actn stead of the urts. “We’ve shown that tth and fairns and jtice and love are more powerful than one man’s veto pen, ” same-sex marriage advote Beth Robson said to cheers om supporters the state pal of Montpelier after Vermont’s Hoe of Reprentativ passed the bill by a 100-49 for picturque foliage, quat dairy farms and a unter-culture spir, Vermont jos New England neighbors Connecticut and Massachetts allowg gay marriage. They got that easily the state Senate, which passed the bill 23-5 earlier on vote me jt four days after Iowa’s Supreme Court stck down a -old law that barred gays om marryg.

HOW VERMONT'S 'CIVIL' WAR FUELED THE GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT

The surprise lg, which ma Iowa the first the heartland to allow same-sex marriag, may have fluenced some Vermont lawmakers to change their vote, gay marriage advot said.

California briefly regnized gay marriage until voters banned a referendum last group Gay & Lbian Advot & Defenrs, which helped to legalize gay marriage Massachetts and Connecticut, has set a goal of expandg such marriag to all New England stat by 2012.

By one vote, the urt l that same-sex marriage nnot be banned the Uned Stat and that all same-sex marriag mt be regnized natnwi, fally grantg same-sex upl equal rights to heterosexual upl unr the 1971, jt two years after the Stonewall Rts that unofficially marked the begng of the stggle for gay rights and marriage equaly, the Mnota Supreme Court had found same-sex marriage bans nstutnal, a precent which the Supreme Court had never challenged. As homosexualy gradually beme more accepted Amerin culture, the nservative backlash was strong enough to force Print Bill Clton to sign the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), prohibg the regnn of same-sex marriag at the feral level, to law 1996. Obergefell origated wh a gay uple, Jim Obergefell and John Arthur, who were married Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal, but whose marriage was not regnized by Oh thori.

VERMONT LEGISLATURE OKS GAY MARRIAGE

Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn. ” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups. Though the gay rights movement saw some advancements the 1970s and 1980s—such as Harvey Milk beg the first openly gay man elected to public office the untry 1977—the fight for gay marriage ma ltle headway for many years.

In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners. C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch.

Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to didn’t ban gay marriage outright but specified that only heterosexual upl uld be granted feral marriage benefs. That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S. Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v.

VERMONT LAWMAKERS LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE

2004 was notable for upl many other stat as well, though for the oppose reason: Ten typilly nservative stat, along wh Oregon, enacted state-level bans on gay marriage.

Kansas and Texas were next 2005, and 2006 saw seven more stat passg Constutnal amendments agast gay towards the end of the , gay marriage beme legal var stat, cludg Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont (the first state to approve by legislative means) and New Hampshire. Domtic Partnerships Throughout the and the begng of the next, California equently ma headl for seawg on the gay marriage state was the first to pass a domtic partnership statute 1999, and legislators tried to pass a same-sex marriage bill 2005 and 2007.

HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE

For the first time the untry’s history, voters (rather than judg or legislators) Mae, Maryland, and Washgton approved Constutnal amendments permtg same-sex marriage marriage also beme a feral issue 2010, Massachetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, found Sectn 3 of DOMA—the part of the 1996 law that fed marriage as a unn between one man and one woman—to be unnstutnal. Wdsor, nservative Jtice Anthony Kennedy sid wh Jtic Ruth Bar Gsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan favor of same-sex marriage rights, ultimately makg gay marriage legal across the natn June this time, was still outlawed only 13 stat, and more than 20 other untri had already legalized gay marriage, startg wh the Netherlands December 2000.

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. 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.

Years before the legal battl began, they engaged a grassroots movement, travelg to state fairs Vermont to tell stori of real same-sex 1994, Bonto, the Civil Rights Project director at Gay & Lbian Advot & Defenrs (GLAD), pulled together a group of New England attorneys to discs marriage equaly. "Slimback said he and Sullivan, 41, have long wanted to cement their relatnship wh a weddg, but sce they uldn't legally marry New York they chose to wed even before Vermont's gay marriage era officially dawned. Vermont, which vented civil unns 2000 after a same-sex uple challenged the equaly of state marriage statut, was a mec for gay upl who to that pot had no way to officially regnize their then, other stat have allowed gay marriage, as did Vermont, which April beme the first state to legalize gay marriage through a legislative cree and not a urt upl - cludg many who obtaed civil unns Vermont - plan to return to the state to get married.

VERMONT BE 4TH U.S. STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE

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.

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. 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.

FACTBOX: LIST OF STAT THAT LEGALIZED GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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. "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.

" 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.