[HCCN] Great news from Vermont

[Judy Robbins]

Published on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 by Reuters
Vermont Legalizes Gay Marriage With Veto Override

by Jason Szep
BOSTON - Vermont legalized gay marriage on Tuesday after lawmakers  
overrode a veto from the governor by a wafer-thin margin, making the  
New England state the fourth in the United States where gays can wed.
The vote, nine years after Vermont was the first in the United States  
to adopt a same-sex civil-union law, also makes the tiny state of  
624,000 people the first in the nation where lawmakers passed a gay  
marriage law instead of the courts.
"We've shown that truth and fairness and justice and love are more  
powerful than one man's veto pen," same-sex marriage advocate Beth  
Robinson said to cheers from supporters in the state capital  
Montpelier after Vermont's House of Representatives passed the bill  
by a 100-49 vote.
Known for picturesque autumn foliage, maple sugar and colonial-style  
inns, Vermont joins New England neighbors Connecticut and  
Massachusetts in allowing gay couples to marry. Iowa legalized gay  
marriage last week.
The bill looked in peril after a vote on Thursday in the Democratic- 
controlled House of Representatives that fell five votes short of the  
support needed to clear a veto threat from Republican Governor Jim  
Douglas.
Douglas vetoed the bill on Monday, urging lawmakers to focus on the  
economy instead. Supporters needed two-thirds of the votes in each  
chamber to override his veto. They got that easily in the state  
Senate, which passed the bill 23-5 earlier on Tuesday. Its fate in  
the House looked unclear.
The vote comes just four days after Iowa's Supreme Court struck down  
a decade-old law that barred gays from marrying. The surprise ruling,  
which made Iowa the first in the heartland to allow same-sex  
marriages, may have influenced some Vermont lawmakers to change their  
vote, gay marriage advocates said.
California briefly recognized gay marriage until voters banned it in  
a referendum last year.
Lawmakers in New Hampshire and Maine also are considering bills to  
allow gay marriage, putting New England at the heart of a divisive  
national debate over the issue.
The group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which helped to  
legalize gay marriage in Massachusetts and Connecticut, has set a  
goal of expanding gay marriage to all New England states by 2012.  
Maine and New Hampshire already offer same-sex couples some form of  
legal recognition.
Forty-three U.S. states have laws explicitly prohibiting such  
marriages, including 29 with constitutional amendments restricting  
marriage to one man and one woman.
(Reporting by Jason Szep; Editing by Will Dunham)

© 2009 Reuters


"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul." -- Edward Abbey




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