If elected president, Howard Dean would direct the federal government to recognize the marriage rights of gay and lesbian couples.
      That’s what Vermont’s current governor told the annual convention of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in September: that he believes the federal government should formally recognize civil unions.
      Vermont remains the only state that confers marriage benefits on same-sex couples.
      Although the civil union law was written to be a parallel to marriage, it has no statutory equivalent anywhere in the U.S., and it so far is unique to Vermont.
      In a speech to the journalists’ convention that Dean delivered as he travels the country trying to build support for a presidential campaign, the governor stopped short of advocating full marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
      “As president of the United States, I will recognize civil unions, which will then allow full equality under the law as far the federal government is concerned,” Dean said in response to a question from the audience.
      He made a point of saying that Vermont has not passed what is commonly referred to as gay marriage, emphasizing that civil unions are a separate institution. Nonetheless, the law does confer state benefits to same-sex couples, such as state tax advantages and health care and inheritance rights that previously had been awarded only to heterosexual married couples.
      “We have full civil marriage rights (for gays and lesbians), we just don’t call it marriage,” Dean said.
      Dean has been invited to speak by many gay and lesbian groups as he travels the country because he signed the civil unions proposal into law and also because he signed laws extending civil rights, hate crimes protection and adoption rights to gays and lesbians.
      But he also has been careful to say as president he would not try to impose what many opponents describe as a gay-rights agenda on states that do not choose to adopt such laws themselves.
      He said in Philadelphia, for example, that it was not the federal government’s role to become involved in marriage statutes. But if individual states were to follow Vermont’s lead and create what amounts to marriage contracts for same-sex couples, the federal government should recognize them, he said.
      “What I am not going to do is tell every state they have to pass civil unions,” he said.
      If Dean’s position were to be adopted by the federal government, it essentially would undo a law known as the Defense of Marriage Act. That law, passed during the Clinton administration, prohibits the federal government from recognizing marriages between any couples except one man and one woman.
      It passed before enactment of civil unions and therefore does not address Vermont’s law. Still, because there is no reference to civil unions in federal law, the U.S. government has not yet recognized any legal rights for couples who obtain a civil union.
      Dean said as president he would not be able to undo the DOMA law without the approval of Congress. But he said he would encourage Congress to repeal it and recognize gay and lesbian relationships.
      Dean also said that as president, he would allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military.
      Federal recognition of same-sex relationships could be significant. Roughly 1,000 benefits flow to married couples from the federal government, including immigration rights, tax advantages and insurance.
      The Vermont law confers more than 300 state rights and benefits on couples.