Word: vermonters
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April is shaping up to be a real watershed for the gay-marriage issue. First came the heartland win on April 3 from the Iowa Supreme Court. Then on Tuesday, Vermont's lawmakers defied Governor Jim Douglas with a veto override heard round the world, making their state the nation's first to establish gay marriage by a vote rather than by judicial decree. That same day in Washington, D.C., the city council chose to give legal recognition to gay and lesbian residents who have been married elsewhere...
...sense that something big is happening has been felt by the other side of the battle too. "The momentum seems to be now on the side of those pushing for the legalization of same-sex marriage," the Rev. Albert Mohler told TIME on Wednesday. "The Vermont and Iowa developments seem to signal the fact that, as many of us have sensed for some time, the legalization of same-sex marriage is taking on a sense of inevitability." Mohler is president of the nation's flagship Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville, Ky., and one of America's most respected Evangelical thinkers...
...marriage is still troubling to many gay-rights activists, who argue that accepting civil unions is equivalent to kowtowing to separate-but-equal schools for black and white children. Yet what will matter most in the immediate future is whether legislatures in other states will follow the example of Vermont. New Hampshire lawmakers may be the next to decide the fate of gay marriage, with a vote scheduled soon. The issue is on the calendar in other statehouses, too, including New York, New Jersey and Maine...
...Until this week, critics of so-called gay marriage used that same undemocratic argument to try to discredit the new right, which is why the Vermont legislature's April 7 vote to legalize marriage for gay couples mattered so much: it was the first time in U.S. history that a first-branch institution, one that has to face voters in short order, actually granted equal marriage rights. (The California legislature has twice voted for marriage equality, but advocates couldn't muster enough votes to override Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vetoes). Lesbian and gay Americans, who will celebrate the 40th anniversary...
...very language we use to describe the Vermont vote cheapens the historic nature of the moment. On the afternoon of April 7, the headlines on the websites of several publications-including the Washington Post, Fox News, USA Today, and Chicago Sun-Times-were identical: "Vermont Legalizes Gay Marriage." (Read "A Gay-Marriage Solution: End Marriage...