The Vermont legislature overrode a the governor's veto of a bill yesterday that would make same-sex marriages legal. On Tuesday, the legislature passed the bill by a margin of 95-52, which was not a big enough margin to pass over the promised veto by the Vermont governor. But today, the legislature's same-sex marriage supporters triumphed over the veto in the House by 100-49 and opened the churches to gay couples.
Vermont was the first state in the US to allow civil unions, and many Republicans that didn't support this current bill were willing to instead extend those benefits. After having passed this bill, however, Vermont will the the fourth state in the US to allow gay marriage, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa.
After the passing of the infamous Proposition 8 in California, this has been a sore subject around the Bay Area. In my opinion, when historians write about this period, allowing gays the right to marriage will be comparable to women's suffrage--a no-brainer.
Last night, on The Daily Show with John Stewart, he commented on the irony of the fact that conservative Iowa, not super-liberal Vermont, was the first state to allow same-sex marriage. Do you think this could be the beginning of the domino effect, being that both a red state and a blue state now allow gay marriage? Or could it be the first sign of a United States split in two by "social values?"
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2 comments:
Well, 4/50 is definitely better than 3/50, and it's a start. And while I hope that this is a sign of a domino effect and the fact that the states who have legalized gay marriage are conservative states will help pro-gay rights activists and politicians gain ground in the legislative arena and convince more people to grant gays full rights, I do acknowledge that the United States is a county of contradictions and as such controversy is to be expected, but as these conflicts are coming to light we can only hope that they educated people to the point where they realize that they have full rights to their own opinions and to voice those opinions but that their voice should not drown out those of others, was it not the same with women's rights as you said?
I wonder why the necessary margin for overriding the governor's veto had to be so high. In my opinion, 95-52 is almost the same thing as 100-49. Nonetheless, I am very glad that same-sex marriage has been legalized in Vermont; it's a big step in the right direction. I definately agree there will be a domino effect in the next few years, but I don't think it will be a very predictable domino effect. In other words, we probably won't have all of the liberal states legalizing it before the conservative states. It will probably be a mix of the two, just as seen with Iowa and Vermont. However, I have a feeling that passing such a bill in all 50 states will be take a while. Not to seem pessimistic or anything, but passing controversial policies doesn't happen over night. We still have some convincing to do before all states accept same-sex marriage.
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