Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.Needless to say, I am thrilled beyond words about this. It's kind of amazing to see the point when the tide turns, and I truly believe we may be at that moment for gay marriage. While I'm a bit less sanguine about our efforts this year for a similar measure here in Maine, I think it's only a matter of time. And that makes me very, very happy.
The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.
The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.
It’s now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.
Update: Speaking of weenies, there is this quote (via the Times):
Steve Cable, the president of Vermont Renewal and the spokesman for the Vermont Marriage Advisory Council, two groups that opposed the measure, said he felt the process had been "stacked" in favor of the bill’s passage from the start, with the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate rushing the bill through and not giving opponents enough time or opportunity to state their case."The whole process has been shameful from the very beginning," Mr. Cable said. "If the process had been fair in allowing both sides to have reasonable debate on this and allowing all of Vermont to engage, then fine, let whatever happens happen. But that’s not the way this came down and I think the next election cycle is going to be very interesting."Puh-leeze. As though legislators voted in favor of same-sex marriage because they were given insufficient time to think about why they opposed it.
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You mean "Cue Hosanna!" We can't say the other word during Lent ;)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, tho, fantastic news! And hilarious how the religious right (or at least Cable and the Weenies) fail to understand democracy -- something about religious self-righteousness hates it when a majority of elected representatives doesn't agree with them, or doesn't give them an infinite amount of time to whine. I'm surprised the Republicans don't like Iran more -- an elected government (with more women in the legislature than in our own Congress) but with a religious council able to veto what it disapproves of. Rush and Cable and the others would be thrilled.