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Loading ...Vermont House begins gay marriage debate
04.01.2009 9:36am EDT
(Montpelier, Vermont) Same-sex marriage legislation moves a step closer today to a showdown with Gov. Jim Douglas. The Vermont House will begin debate today on a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.
The measure passed the House Judiciary Committee 8-2 on Monday, sending it to the full House, but not without several amendments.One would guarantee that churches would not be obligated to marry same-sex couples. Another preserves the words husband and wife on marriage licenses while affirming same-sex couples can marry, and a third allows private church-based organizations to refuse facilities and membership to gay couples.
One Republican and seven Democrats voted in favor of the bill.
The Senate already has overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill. But Douglas has said if the legislation passes the House, he will veto it.
The House version is expected to pass, but it remains unclear if it will garner enough votes to override a veto.
Vermont was the first state in the country to legalize civil unions in 2000. Since then, LGBT groups have criticized the law for creating a “two tiered” system – marriage for opposite-sex couples and civil unions for gays.
Under the marriage bill, the civil unions law would allow marriage of same-sex partners beginning Sept. 1. Civil unions, which confer some rights similar to marriage, would still be recognized but no longer granted after Sept. 1.
Supporters cast the debate as a civil rights issue, saying a civil unions law enacted by the state in 2000 has fallen short of the equality it promised same-sex couples. Its appeal has declined, too: In 2001, the state granted 1,876 civil unions, compared with only 262 last year.
An impact study released earlier this month suggests there is a link between the economy and gay marriage.
The study, by the Williams Institute at UCLA, found that approval of gay marriage in Vermont could generate $31 million in new spending and $3.3 million in state taxes over three years.
Last November, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based LGBT rights group that brought the successful legal challenges leading to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and Connecticut launched the “Six by Twelve” campaign to legalize gay marriage throughout all six New England states by 2012
You don’t need either Person A and Person B on the Marriage Certificate …or Husband/Wife, Wife/Wife, Husband/Husband.
Our Marriage Certificate from Vancouver, B.C., Canada simply stated both of our names and then listed our gender as — Male or Female next to our date of birth — nothing more was needed.
That avoids the silly nomenclatures altogether.
I love that it allows churches to ban gay couples from using their facilities…if they were against inter-racial marriage in the sixties did they lobby for that exclusion as well??? There is the love of god for you.
Today, SWEDEN became the 7th country to legalize gay marriage. Every win in another country shows the U.S. for the intolerant and backward country it has become.
To Phil: Wait…so when they say the amendment would preserve the words “husband” and “wife” on marriage certificates, does that mean that all marriage certificates must have a husband and a wife, even if they are the same sex? If so this is absolutely absurd and I fail to see how it makes the bill more palatable to anti-same-sex marriage people.
I’m assuming the amendment allows certificates to read “husband and husband” or “wife and “wife” instead of what California used, “Party A” and “Party B.” I prefer the terms husband/husband, wife/wife, and husband/wife personally.
It would be nice if they state legislature could override the veto. That rarely happens because a large amount of votes is needed, but if they can do it, it will really send a message.
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Either way, we’re going to keep our Vermont civil union certificate (framed in the front hall) and hopefully soon put an Iowa marriage certificate beside it. Or maybe a Vermont marriage certificate. Or a California…
It’s a little disheartening that they fought to keep the terms ‘husband and wife’ on the license and seemingly are just letting us ‘tag along’ on that piece of paper. But the more I thought about it, that is something that can be taken care of later. The focus now is getting that veto-proof majority and getting marriage legal in VT. Anything else will get worked out when VT gets a better governor.