Connecticutâs Supreme Court struck a blow to civil unions this month.
Activists and politicians have long decried the âseparate, but equalâ institution, but the Connecticut decision put unionsâ deficiency in stark relief, concluding, ââŚBecause the institution of marriage carries it it a status and significance that the newly crated classification of civil unions does not embody, the segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm.â
With that ruling, Vermontâs progressive leaders are looking to break their own âcivilâ bonds.
That state passed civil unions eight years ago, when the political climate was far more foreboding, but are feeling rejuvenated and ready to roar into the future to institute gay marriage there:
How about we take this to the next level?
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âI feel the landscape has changed, especially from eight years ago,â said Rep. Mark Larson, D-Burlington, who was the lead sponsor of a gay marriage bill during the last legislative session. âI donât think weâll see the divisiveness that we saw before. Vermont has come a long way since then.â
With more than two months before the start of the new legislative session and an election coming next month, advocates and lawmakers were mum on who might be major players in this discussion and what the main strategy to pass such a bill would look like.
âI havenât been talking strategy with anyone yet,â said Rep. Jason Lorber, D-Burlington, a co-sponsor of Larsonâs gay marriage bill. âBut I expect it will come up next year and I certainly hope that we pass it.â
The big difference between Vermont and Connecticut â and, in fact, California and Massachusetts â could be that lawmakers take the reins on this one, rather than leaving it to the court. If that happens, the state would be the first to legislatively pass gay marriage, thus poking holes in that tired, old âactivist judgesâ argument the right likes so much.
Qjersey
And the pols and activists in Jersey have been quietly planning the same thing and they have explicitly stated they were waiting for the presidential election to pass (they didn’t want to have the state swing republican over the issue in this election). Expect a Civil Union to Marriage Bill in the Garden State to pass in 2009. In fact our Gov has said he would sign it.
John K.
That’s right, Jersey will be first! đ