Another victory today as the D.C. Council voted unanimously to recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state:
“Domestic partnerships are already legal in the nation’s capital, and gay couples married in other states are recognized as domestic partners when they move to the city. But today’s legislation, billed as an important milestone in gay rights, explicitly recognizes them as married couples. The initial vote was 12-0. The unanimous vote sets the stage for future debate on legalizing gay marriage in the District and a clash with Congress, which approves the city’s laws under Home Rule. The council is expected to take a final vote on the legislation next month.”
I’m struck by the stunned silence on the bloggy right to Vermont’s momentous decision to pass marriage equality. The reason, I suspect, is that the anti-gay right has placed a lot of eggs in the judicial activism argument. They felt safest there, on procedural grounds, even if the logic of their position brought them into a very radical originalist jurisprudence that would largely eviscerate the social and cultural landscape of modern America (on race, particularly).
The decision by the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn that state’s gay marriage ban is prompting questions about whether or not the battle over gay marriage, long a central focus in the culture war, has reached a tipping point in American culture.
Iowa, as gay marriage backers like to point out, is not a liberal, coastal state like Massachusetts and Connecticut – the two states that already offer legal gay marriage – or California, where the narrow passage of a ballot initiative banning gay marriage last year galvanized the gay rights movement.
Of course, this is just one example of how Friday’s decision changes the lives of gay and lesbian couples in Iowa. As the court wrote in its unanimous decision, the 12 plaintiffs (six couples) expressed “the disadvantages and fears they face each day due to the inability to obtain a civil marriage in Iowa.” These include: “the legal inability to make many life and death decisions affecting their partner, including decisions related to health care . . . the inability to share in their partners’ state-provided health insurance, public employee pension benefits, and many private-employer-provided benefits and protections,” and the denial of “several tax benefits.”
“Yet, perhaps the ultimate disadvantage expressed in the testimony of the plaintiffs,” the court continued, “is the inability to obtain for themselves and for their children the personal and public affirmation that accompanies marriage.” In other words, they desire to be recognized as married couples, as a “family” to use my brother’s word.
Rick Warren:
Madeleine M. Kunin, First Woman Governor of Vermont, via HuffPost:
I cannot help but think how far we have come in such a short time to guarantee respect to gay and lesbian Americans. I remember when I was in my second term as Governor I was the only politician to speak at one of the first gay pride parades in Burlington. I stood on the steps of the Unitarian church under a broad banner that said “Gay Pride.” The newspaper made certain that both my photo and the banner fit into the picture that was featured on the front page the next day. I later learned that that photo was scotch taped to several cash registers in stores with a red circle and a red slash.
Almost ten years ago Vermont was the first state to enact a law that permitted civil unions, by a margin of one vote. The fact that this law was enacted by two-thirds of the legislators is one indicator of how much has changed. At that time, a dozen legislators who voted for the law lost their seats in the next election. There was a severe back lash, complete with yard signs that read, “Take Back Vermont.”
In the public hearings held in 2000, many Vermonters learned for the first time that gay and lesbian Vermonters were their neighbors, not simply “the other.” This time, we learned that they are worthy of full citizenship. Not every gay or lesbian person will want to get married, but every gay and lesbian person can feel a little more safe, experience a little more dignity, and most important of all, feel proud — proud not only for themselves (gay pride), but for the citizens of this small state which has had the good sense to do the right thing.
