Vermont: Same-sex marriage report due

[cali]

April 17, 2008

By Daniel Barlow Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER – The long-awaited report to the Vermont Legislature on the possibility of expanding marriage rights to same-sex couples will be released Monday.

Tom Little, the chairman of the Vermont Commission on Family Recognition and Protection, said members of the legislatively created group will meet at the Statehouse on Monday at 3 p.m. in Room 10 to unveil their findings.

A preliminary copy of the report – which will detail Vermonters' feelings on gay marriage eight years after the civil unions law – is not yet available, Little said Wednesday, because members are still putting their final touches to it.

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Little said members of the group will discuss the highlights of the report at that meeting, the process of holding a series of public hearings across the state and "what lies ahead."

<snip>

Democratic leaders of the Vermont House and Senate formed the committee – comprised of 11 Vermonters, including Little, a former Republican state legislator who oversaw the writing of the 2000 civil unions law – last summer to determine if it is time for the state to take the next step in expanding the rights of gays and lesbians.

The commission held a series of public hearings across the state during the fall and winter, and overwhelmingly heard support for changing state law to allow same-sex couples to marry.

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http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080417/NEWS02/804170351/1003/NEWS02

It's not going to happen this year- the civil unions vote cost many dems their seats, and lost us the legislature, but in 2009, odds are very, very good, that VT will move from civil unions to full marriage rights for the GLBT community.

[Marrah_G]

1. Honestly, I'm surprised this hasn't passed in VT yet. n/t

I just can't see VTers voting this down.

[cali]

2. I think people forget what it was like here in 1999 and 2000

David Moats who got a Pulitzer for his reporting on it, wrote a really interesting little book entitled "Civil Wars". Dems who voted for it were booted out in 2000, giving the legislature to the repukes. Things are very different now, but I guarantee they won't vote on legislation to replace civil unions with marriage in an election year. It'll happen in 2009.

[Ohio Joe]

3. This kind of pisses me off

I mean, great, VT is moving in the right direction but WTF? We have to have meetings to determine if we should have equal rights? The shit is just not right :mad: