Vermont becomes 4th State to Legalize Gay Marraige!

[TeamJordan23]

Vermont legalizes gay marriage
April 7, 2009

MONTPELIER, Vt. --Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage.

The state 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.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2009/04/07/vermont_legalizes_gay_marriage/

[Hope And Change]

1. I`m straight but this is great news.K & R!

:kick:

[SPedigrees]

5. What you said, Hope.

I'm so proud of our little state. Now if we can find a strong dem candidate to purge us of our current governor. (I've heard rumors that Deb Markowitz might be planning a gubernatorial run; she might be the one.)

[Brazenly Liberal]

2. First state to do it through legislature without a court decision

WOOHOO, Vermont!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[denem]

7. Not just 'through legislature' but over a veto.

[Brazenly Liberal]

10. Yep!

I love it!

[Aloha Spirit]

12. Wow, that's quite a feat.

I didn't realize that was the case, but yeah, the others were court decisions huh.
Here is Mass, there was a lot of wrangling and maneuvering to prevent the legislature from taking a vote.
Then, about five years ago, here in Cambridge, with Governor Romney's authority (lol ... poor GOP.), we started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples like just after midnight.
A lot of people here are acutely aware of the danger of using ballot initiatives to decide civil rights issues, but can it really be that far away? A time when a majority of Americans thinks their fellow Americans shouldn't be discriminated based on sexual orientation?

[Occam Bandage]

3. Good job, Vermont!

[Jennicut]

4. Thank you Vermont!

Its a beautiful state as well, lots of green rolling hills. I live CT but would not mind moving there some day.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Go Vermont!

This is one for the history books!

[DevonRex]

8. Vermont is beautiful and it's people are for full civil rights! Can't get better

than that.

[DevonRex]

9. Damn. Forgot to rec so K&R!!!

[DianeK]

11. I can't remember a time when I felt more pride

for my beautiful little state with alot of heart

[Aloha Spirit]

13. To me you'll always be

the land of cider doughnuts .
Vermont=perfection.
Please don't secede.

[JayMusgrove]

14. Funny how there is no celebration, or even any news at

Freeperville, where they follow the "homosexual agenda".

[Political Heretic]

15. I've been busy all day but let me just say HIP HIP HORRAY!!!!!!!!

[bigwillq]

16. Awesome!

:bounce:

[polichick]

17. Great news! 46 more to go.

[ShadowLiberal]

18. Great, I've been worried that bill might be doomed when Douglas came out against it

I was starting to think that maybe the bill had been killed after the stories for it were just "bill passes state senate", and "governor against gay marriage bill", and nothing about the chamber in the legislature.

Victories like this are exactly what we need first before we're gonna get gay marriage legalized at the federal level. In my opinion legalize gay marriage and give it a few years, and many who were against it will see it's not so bad after all, and that a lot of their rhetoric about gay marriage being bad was wrong. It's already happened before among priests/ministers/etc in nations that have legalized gay marriage.

In one country where gay marriage is legalized (I think it was the Netherlands) a group conducted a poll asking just priests/ministers/etc a bunch of questions about their opinions on gay marriage. They found somewhere between 75% and 80% of them were against gay marriage in that poll. Then 5 years after gay marriage had been legalized they asked those exact same people the same questions. I believe the support for gay marriage was almost exact the same number as those who had opposed it 5 years ago. Many of the priests/etc taking their survey admitted they were wrong to have opposed gay marriage, and even mentioned some good things that ended up happening from legalizing gay marriage, like gay couples being more faithful to each other.