Vermont legalised gay marriage yesterday after lawmakers overrode a veto from the governor by a wafer-thin margin, making the New England state the fourth in the United States where gays can wed.
The vote, nine years after Vermont was the first in the United States to adopt a same-sex civil union law, also makes the tiny state of 624,000 people the first in the nation where lawmakers passed a gay marriage law instead of the courts.
“We’ve shown that truth and fairness and justice and love are more powerful than one man’s veto pen,” same-sex marriage advocate Beth Robinson said, to cheers from supporters in the state capital, Montpelier, after Vermont’s House of Representatives passed the Bill by a 100-49 vote.
Known for picturesque autumn foliage, maple sugar and colonial-style inns, Vermont joins New England neighbours Connecticut and Massachusetts in allowing gay couples to marry. Iowa legalised gay marriage last week.
The Bill looked in peril after a vote last Thursday in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives that fell five votes short of the support needed to clear a veto threat from Republican governor Jim Douglas.
Gov Douglas vetoed the Bill on Monday, urging lawmakers to focus on the economy instead.
Supporters needed two-thirds of the votes in each chamber to override his veto. They got that easily in the state Senate, which passed the Bill 23-5 earlier yesterday. Its fate in the House looked unclear.
The vote comes just four days after Iowa’s supreme court struck down a decade-old law that barred gays from marrying. The surprise ruling, which made Iowa the first in the heartland to allow same-sex marriages, may have influenced some Vermont lawmakers to change their vote, gay marriage advocates said.
California briefly recognised gay marriage until voters banned it in a referendum last year.
Lawmakers in New Hampshire and Maine also are considering Bills to allow gay marriage, putting New England at the heart of a divisive national debate on the issue. Maine and New Hampshire already offer same-sex couples some form of legal recognition. – (Reuters)