The Vermont Legislature voted Tuesday to permit same-sex couples to marry — making it the first state in the union to legalize gay marriage through a vote of lawmakers rather than a court action.
The vote brings to four the number of states that allow gay marriage.
In his veto message, Gov. Jim Douglas said he supported civil unions, which Vermont has had since 2000, but that he believes that marriage should remain between a man and a woman. The Vermont House voted 100-49 to override him, the bare minimum needed.
Marriages will begin in Vermont in September. They are now legal in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and will begin in Iowa later this month.
After the vote, the chambers burst into applause.
Opponents of gay marriage, meanwhile, condemned the decision, and signaled that they would launch a public relations counterattack by buying air time in several television markets including Iowa and much of the northeast, including New Hampshire, where lawmakers are poised to vote on a gay marriage law.
“Today is a truly sad day for Vermont and this nation,” said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage.
Brown said he hoped the ad campaign, which he said would eventually include more than $1.5 million worth of air time, would “highlight how same-sex marriage undermines the core civil rights of those who believe in the simple truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”
The ad, made available to the Los Angeles Times, presents a multi-ethnic front. It begins with a worried-looking blond woman declaring, “There is a storm gathering … and I am afraid.” Another woman steps forward: “I am parent, helplessly watching public schools teach my son that gay marriage is OK.” Then a black man declares that “there is hope: a rainbow coalition … coming together in love to protect marriage. Join Us.”
Gay rights activists, however, were thrilled Tuesday, hailing the vote in Vermont, along with another action that day — a decision by the Washington, D.C., City Council to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere.
“This is a week we all will remember: first Iowa, then Vermont, then D.C ,” said Jenny Pizer, the marriage director for Lambda Legal. “We have turned another critical corner in this equal rights movement.”
The events in Vermont and Washington came as the California Supreme Court considers whether to overturn Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned gay marriages in California.
The measure amended the California Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman following a state Supreme Court ruling last May that allowed them. During the 5 months gay marriage was legal in California, more than 18,000 same sex couples tied the knot.
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