Vermont Nixes Veto, Legalizes Gay Marriage - CBS News »
Posted By gamahuche 10 months, 1 week ago in FamilyVermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage - and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.
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.
"I've made my position quite clear that I believe marriage is and ought to remain the union of a man and a woman, that our civil unions law affords equality of opportunities and rights under state law and that that should suffice," the governor said on the eve of the Senate committee vote last month.
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gamahuche
"I would rather be a square peg than fit in a pigeon hole" -
an essay which won me the "Lamb Essay Prize" at the Religious ...
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gamahuche10 months, 1 week ago
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It brings me great pleasure that the last state in which I lived in the US, very happily, has succeded in passing this legislation.
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Virtually everyone that I knew there, gay or straight will be in favour of it.
Now it would be nice to see it happen in my homeland but I fear it will take a while..
One of our most prominent politicians still feels that he needs to be "found out" by the Press in "illicit" encounters in order to prove his heterosexual credentials.
His wife of course connives in this farce and feels no need to divorce him.
No - DON'T ask me who. -
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pokydoke10 months, 1 week ago
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New England is a pretty cool place to live. I find most people here are accepting of others who don't march to the same drummer. I live in a small town here in central NE. I have locks on my doors and windows but I haven't seen the keys in years. I never lose the car keys because I always just leave them in the car even downtown or at work. There are gay and lesbian couples in town and they are prominent citizens and accepted without question. Oddly enough we are also a Republican stronghold here in Mass as well.
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david_nwpa10 months, 1 week ago
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Now the battle shifts to New Hampshire and Maine before swinging back to California. This is going to be a boon year for gay and lesbian civil rights. All people deserve equality, and Vermont's law establishes it. Years from now, people will wonder why it took so long to come.
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hamy10 months, 1 week ago
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Kudos to both Vermont and Iowa. And I've noticed that blood didn't rain down from the skies. And my straight friends marriages didn't collapse. And God didn't send bolts of lightning to destroy Vermont or Iowa. And my sister's children are still staying out of trouble.
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Hmmm. Maybe the pope and the rest of the christian bigots were wrong! Maybe they should focus on actually preventing divorces within straight couples marriages instead of denying rights to othersl based on their own personal bigotry while hiding behind their religious beliefs. -
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lvrofwolves10 months, 1 week ago
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Well as you said David, people will wonder why it took so long, and for the reasons hamy mentions.
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Seriously there is nothing to fear. Regardless of how anyone feels about homosexuals, I'd think they'd at least be happy about embracing equal rights for everyone, this is America after all. -
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Tangent00110 months, 1 week ago
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Soon the movement will become inexorable, as it did with the civil rights movements for women and minorities.
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I am proud to live in a country where reason prevails over pig-headed bigotry (eventually).
There are, of course, some who will maintain that state legislatures and 'activist' judges are doing an end-run around the will of the people (or worse, some sort of concocted 'tradition'). Well, that is the nature of lawmaking in the US. Some laws are enacted through public referendum, some through deliberative legislation, some are mitigated by the judicial interpretation of constitutions.
The only people who say public opinion should be the ultimate arbiter of laws are the ones who don't have a rational leg on which to stand.
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