Gay rights group plans push for same-sex marriage in region
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By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau - Published: November 20, 2008
MONTPELIER — New England's largest gay and lesbian advocacy organization announced this week a plan to push for the legalization of same-sex marriage in all of the region's states by the year 2012.
The Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders organization, a leading legal rights organization for same-sex couples, announced Tuesday that it would use its legal and lobbying abilities to bring gay marriage to the four remaining New England states without it.
The announcement came on the fifth anniversary of the Goodridge v. Department of Public Health case in Massachusetts, which led to that state's highest court legalizing same-sex marriage. Last month, Connecticut followed in its footsteps when its Supreme Court came to a similar conclusion.
Lee Swislow, the executive director of GLAD, said each of the New England states has its own political landscape surrounding same-sex rights and the group's approach will be different in each one.
Vermont and New Hampshire have already legalized civil unions, and Massachusetts and Connecticut have taken a step further and now have same-sex marriage, she said. And there is encouraging news coming from the other states, she added.
Volunteers outside of polling places in Maine this month gathered 30,000 postcards from voters in support of same-sex marriage, Swislow said, when one-third of that number was the goal. And in Rhode Island, more than 400 people turned out Friday night for a protest against a decision on Election Day in California to ban same-sex marriage, she said.
"New Englanders have always had a live-and-let-live attitude," Swislow said. "So, we see the move toward marriage equality in line with those cultural values. And in general, New Englanders want to do the right thing."
Beth Robinson, the attorney who successfully argued the court case leading to Vermont civil unions, said Wednesday that the group she is a member of — Vermont Freedom to Marry — believes that 2009 is the year that lawmakers seriously consider same-sex marriages in the state.
Sen. John Campbell, D-Windsor, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced earlier this week that he would again sponsor a bill in support of same-sex marriage during the 2009 legislative session.
"This will be the year," Robinson said.
Robinson said she was disappointed that on Election Day voters in three states — California, Florida and Arizona — passed resolutions banning same-sex marriages, but she found some good news looking closely at the numbers.
When California voters approved a statutory change eight years ago against same-sex marriage, the split was a 22 percent difference, she said. Earlier this month, the split was a lot closer, with only a 4 percent difference, she said.
"That was a very close vote," she said. "The trajectory we see is in our favor."
The Green Mountain State, once home to numerous "Take Back Vermont" signs during the divisive debate over civil unions in the late 1990s and early 2000s, still has several active and prominent groups ready to organize to oppose lawmakers supporting same-sex marriage.
One of those groups is Take It to the People, which has been pushing for a statewide ballot question on the same-sex marriage question (a difficult proposition in Vermont to pull off compared to some other states).
President Craig Benson said he doesn't believe 2009 will be the year for same-sex marriage in Vermont. Almost every year since civil unions were legalized a legislator sponsors a same-sex marriage bill, he said, and it barely gets a hearing before the idea is shelved.
"If the Legislature knows what Vermonters want, than it probably won't waste its time and resources on issues like this and instead focus on the economy," Benson said.
If a same-sex marriage bill does gain traction in the Vermont Legislature, Benson said he and other groups will have an active presence at the Statehouse during the 2009 session.
"We've been pretty encouraged by what has been happening on the national scene," he said.
Robinson said she doesn't believe that debates over same-sex marriage could be derailed by the economic storm cloud covering the state. The committees of jurisdiction in this area — the House and Senate Judiciary committees — don't get involved in money talks, she said.
"This can really be seen as an opportunity to pass a law that makes a huge difference in the lives of Vermonters without spending a penny," Robinson said. "If anything, this could bring in more revenue for Vermont."
Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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