Wednesday, April 08, 2009
This week has been a week of victory for human rights. 2 states in the US have joined the list of states that recognizes gay marriage: Iowa (a Mid-Western state no less!) and Vermont.
Let's hear it for the Vermont legislature: Governor Jim Douglas had vetoed a bill allowing gay marriage in his state, but his veto was overturned today by members of Vermont's legislature, with a 23 to 5 vote in the Senate and a 100 to 49 vote in the House.
So now gay marriage is legal in Vermont.
It feels so good to write that.
This is historic in that it makes the first time a state has legalized gay marriage with a legislature's vote, Vermont's Burlington Free Press points out, noting that the other states that permit gay marriage—Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa—did so after court rulings.
I know the battle has only begun, but ten years ago who would have ever thought we'd get this far? It was huge enough when Vermont became the first state to allow same-sex civil unions back in 2000.
I'm savoring today's victory.
I know we've had setbacks. The passage of Prop 8, which banned gay marriage in California, still kills me. But our victories in Vermont and Iowa are truly heartening.
What's next?
Well, New England appears to be at the epicenter of the battle for same-sex marriage at the moment. New Hampshire's House of Representatives approved a same-sex marriage bill last month (New Hampshire, by the way, already allows civil unions for same-sex couples), and the legislatures in both Maine and Rhode Island are "considering their own versions, though they are not as far along in the process," The New York Times reports.