Out In The Mountains : News - VT Supreme Court Reaction: Vermont Libertarian Party

Attorneys for the plantiffs: (left to right, above) Beth Robinson, Mary Bonauto and (below) Susan Murray. Robinson and Murray are with Vermont firm Langrock Sperry and Wool. Bonauto works for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in Boston. Photos: Max Stroud

Vermont Libertarian Party Chairman Scott Berkey gave qualified praise to the Vermont Supreme Court’s ruling that domestic partnership arrangements between individuals of the same sex must enjoy the same protection as similar arrangements between individuals of different sex. Nevertheless, Berkey noted that inequities still remain under the ruling.

“The Court must be commended for neither reinforcing nor weakening the traditional definition or institution of marriage, which we Libertarians think must always be a private matter to be neither encouraged nor discouraged by the state,” Berkey said. “Furthermore, we recognize as well-intended the Court’s desire that all domestic partnership arrangements receive equal protection.”

“Nevertheless,” Berkey went on, “the role of the state should be to ensure equal rights for everyone. Condoning special protection for all domestic partnership agreements might be a step in the direction of equal rights among all those choosing to enter into such agreements, but it discriminates against those who choose to live singly without domestic partners, and thereby be unqualified for this special protection.”

The Libertarian Party believes in individual rights, individual freedom and equal protection of the laws regardless of any lifestyle that an individual chooses to live, even if single. The Libertarian Party offers voters the only realistic alternative to growing state involvement over our private lives, personal property or economic activity.