Out In The Mountains : News - Will VT Go For Gay Marriage?

      One question has recurred in public and private discussions of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling overturning the commonwealth's ban on same-gender marriage: Will activists in Vermont now seek legislative action to secure full equality in marriage?
     "There's no question that the ultimate goal remains genuine equality, that is, marriage," said Beth Robinson, one of the attorneys in the historic Baker v. State lawsuit, which culminated in Vermont's civil unions law. "The passage of the civil union law doesn't change that, and we've never stopped pushing for marriage."
     Sherry Corbin, of the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force, is somewhat less affirmative. "I can't really say we're going to push for legislative action this year," Corbin said in a phone interview. "I don't think we're ready."
     "The question is really one of timing and tactics," added Robinson in an email. "We spent years doing political and educational work in chapter one of this saga (culminating in the civil union law), and in my judgment our focus at this time needs to be on the political and educational work to lay the groundwork in the next chapter."
     The Task Force acknowledges there remain some things to be fixed, Corbin said. "The Vermont law doesn't do anything for us on a federal level, and some of us hoped it would. Marriages are taken for granted, and civil unions are not treated the same, still, in many places." Corbin cited bringing non-citizen partners into the country as one example of a federal law unaffected by civil union.
     "Dammit, we went through all this hell, and we won't get to be the first state with a [gay] marriage law. I feel both elation [for Massachusetts] and frustration, especially as a born Vermonter - I wanted us to be first," Corbin added. There will likely be no move in the 2004 legislature to change Vermont's marriage law, she said.
     At the same time, Corbin cautioned that conservative groups may use reaction to the Massachusetts ruling to push for more restrictive language in the marriage statutes.
     Vermont is one of only 14 states plus the District of Columbia that has not passed a so-called mini-DOMA, or state law mirroring the federal Defense of Marriage Act. That law allows (but does not require) states to refuse to comply with the full faith and credit clause of the U. S. Constitution with respect to recognizing same-sex
marriages performed in other states. It also denies recognition of gay marriages or similar arrangements by the federal government by defining "marriage" and "spouse" as applying solely to partners of the opposite sex.