And Now Vermont

[filkertom]

Fantastic:

Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.

The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote — the minimum needed — to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.

Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples and joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa in giving gays the right to marry. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

Tuesday morning's legislative action came less than a day after Douglas issued a veto message saying the bill would not improve the lot of gay and lesbian couples because it still would not provide them rights under federal and other states' laws.

House Speaker Shap Smith's announcement of the vote brought an outburst of jubilation from some of the hundreds packed into the gallery and the lobby outside the House chamber, despite the speaker's admonishment against such displays.

I'm just delighted. The gay-marriage opponents (such as Pastor Rick Warren) are trying to outrun time, and it still comes down to What Business Is It Of Anybody's.

Here's some analysis by John Aravosis of AmericaBlog. But I think we can also handle that duty ourselves.

ETA: Even better -- the Council of the District of Columbia voted yesterday to recognize other states' gay marriages as legal:

Domestic partnerships are already legal in the nation's capital. But yesterday's vote, billed as an important milestone in gay rights, explicitly recognizes relocated gay married couples as married.

Fan effin tastic.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

*CHEERS* for Vermont!! With all due respect to the other states whose courts acted courageously, if I ever do get married, I'm lobbying my fiancee to go there.

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

Sweet! I need to go buy a pint of Ben and Jerry's to celebrate. (They're still based out of Vermont, right?)

Also: California is ludicrously behind the times. We need to get it together plzkthx.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I voted against Prop H8.

The moment it's overturned, I have a wedding to officiate. I swore to dance at Anne and Veronica's wedding and by damn I'll do it, even if I have to schlepp them to Iowa or Vermont.

[ericcoleman]

If you come to Iowa, you have a place to stay ...

[alverant.livejournal.com]

*shameless plug* If you're going to Iowa and will be in Des Moines or Davenport visit the Machine Shed for breakfast (near the Living History farms in Des Moines or exit 292 along I-80 in Davenport). It's a great place.

But anywhere you go, support your locally owned restaurants. Avoid chain sameness!

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I think that gay marriage opponents should not marry a person of the same sex then. It does not TOUCH them.

Just like, I think that men who oppose abortion should under no circumstances ever have one. Otherwise, STFU.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Precisely. It only effects them on the needing-to-control-somebody-else level. And they sure as hell complain when someone tries to get them to not do that.

[kirylyn.livejournal.com]

better yet, if a man opposes abortion, then he needs to a) get snipped and b) never ever have sex.

he doesn't want to be part of A solution, he can NOT be part of the Problem.

but no... men are supposed to sow their seed far and wide and women are supposed to be so meek and docile that they'll grovel for his touch.

*gags*

WooHooooo VT!! yeah, I need a pint of B&J's to celebrate!

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

To be fair, being that I am a man against abortion, I think there are a lot of "men" who need to just grow the frell up. If you don't want to take responisbility then keep it in your pants.

Just my opinon though.

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Tom, I've got three thousand dollars here that says we're going to see all the anti-gay-marriage pundits suddenly discover that The Will of the People isn't Always Right.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Oh, the type tosses democracy out the window whenever it doesn't agree with them. Obama wins the election? The people have surrendered to the forces of Islam! A state legalizes gay marriage? The homosexual agenda has brainwashed its legislators (who don't really represent The Will Of The People anyway, or they would have voted against it)! etc. etc. etc.

Alternately, they start talking about The Real Will Of The People, which is of course The Will Of Them.

When a court decision legitimized gay marriage in Canada, the anti-gay-marriage pundits and most conservative politicians went through this really spectacular series of goalpost-moving attempts in order to get rid of it. The provinces said it was okay? Well, clearly the Supreme Court had to decide. Supreme Court says it's okay? Well, it isn't really until Parliament says so. Whoops! Parliament said so! That means we need to do a nationwide referendum on the subject!

Fortunately, people started getting annoyed around the time the referendum came up. I'd bet my life, though, that if one happened and it'd approve gay marriage, they'd have either started talking about amending the Constitution (which is basically impossible in Canada), or simply went back to appealing to the courts.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Please. These are the same faction that decried any criticism of the President as High Treason... before the "other one" got elected. It's never "our treason".

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Heh, had the following line from 1776 floating through my head the last day or so:

"A revolution is always legal in the first person, 'our revolution'. It's only in the third person, 'their revolution', that it becomes a crime."
-- Ben Franklin

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

Dunno about Tom, but I certainly wouldn't take that bet. I never bet against right-wing stupidity.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

No chance. Remember these people are all about personal freedom... as long as it applies to them checkin' out other peoples' sex lives.

[skemono.livejournal.com]

No, they're going to say that the legislators didn't really act on behalf of the will of the people, they capitulated to that awe-inspiring homosexual lobby, and therefore what Vermont really needs is a constitutional amendment so the people can vote down those fags' rights directly.

[enegim.livejournal.com]

Yup.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/AP/Search/US/Default.aspx?id=481344

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice..."

Nate Silver has a great statistical rundown of when states are likely to legalize gay marriage (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/04/will-iowans-uphold-gay-marriage.html). (Or rather, when they're likely to reject bans.)

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

That is an interesting article. I might boost Georgia sooner; my sources [okay, my gay friends in GA] indicate that Atlanta is the Gay Capitol of the South and could swing it within our lifetime.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

... Utah in four years? I like 538, but I gotta wonder how they got that date. I could see the 2020s, or the 3020s maybe, but...

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

Based on how he described his model, I'm going to guess that the absence of a significant "evangelical" population in Utah is the reason. I don't think Mormons count as demographically "evangelical", even though their approach to gay marriage (read: "institutional homophobia") is much the same.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I can't see a state which went as far out of its way to influence another state's referendum on this as Utah did doing a 180 on their views in a mere four years.

[tommytoony.livejournal.com]

So let me get this straight...gays are supposedly ruining the sanctity of marriage...and yet you can get married on MySpace.....c'est que fuck?

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. As a straight married person who thinks that being married is awesome, I'm happy to see that my gay/lesbian friends now have yet another place where they can join in the awesome.

(And for the record, the state of the economy right now is more likely to put a strain on our marriage ... and thankfully we've had a lot of practice at this marriage thing so that the budget crunch isn't leading to fights. But still, I'm at the point where I want to tell the defense of marriage fundies that stabilizing our economy is going to do a heck of a lot more to save families and marriages.)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

"The Sanctity of Marriage" is beginning to be one of those phrases like "The Glorious Free Market" to me -- nice idea, but too bad reality keeps smackin' into it at every single turn.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

My thought on that is always that they should keep their sanctity elsewhere. These are civil marriages we are talking about. Oy...

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Which brings me to one of my criticisms about my fellow Christians. The divorce rate among Christians is the same as that among non-Christians, if you want any degree of authority in talking about the sanctity of marriage, which I do believe in, then remove the planks in our own eyes before talking about the splinter in someone elses.

For the record I believe the sanctity of marriage to be the covenant between husband and wife. The vows that you take should be taken very seriously or you shouldn't do it at all.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Now Ben and Jerry can get married ;) Goodness knows they've been producing frozen children out of wedlock for years.... ;)

Seriously, this is fantastic news!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks. Do you know how painful it is to pass a lump of Cherry Garcia through your nose, suddenly and violently?

[saganth.livejournal.com]

ROTFLMAO!

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Tuesday morning's legislative action came less than a day after Douglas issued a veto message saying the bill would not improve the lot of gay and lesbian couples because it still would not provide them rights under federal and other states' laws.

Niiiiice excuse. Because allowing it in his state doesn't do anything to create legal & moral groundwork to drag the rest of these idiots kicking & screaming in to the modern world.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Disgusting, innit? "Listen, I don't mind, but all the other guys are against it, so whaddaya gonna do?"

The concept of protecting people against the "tyranny of the majority" is being lost again, and we need laws like this to bring it back.

[bschilli.livejournal.com]

The only dark cloud I see in this news is that Congress can override the DC Council. Too many cowards in Congress would vote to "fix" that.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

Very cool. Congrats for the people of Vermont.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Four! Four dominoes! Ah, ah, ah! (/thecount)

California's shame is Iowa's glory.

At this rate I'll be able to embarrass the hell out of my nephew by dancing at his wedding by the time he's decided to settle down with the right guy.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Also, the governor of Iowa announced today that he would not support an amendment to reverse the court.

[jhcgh.livejournal.com]

oh, this is sooo wonderful!

I'm in Starbucks, and when I read the post I was giggling and grinning so hard I couldn't drink my hot chocolate. Congrats to the top 4!!