Sometimes It’s Good News by KTK

The Vermont legislature just overrode it’s governor’s veto of the same-sex marriage bill that passed yesterday. Gay marriage is legal in Vermont!

Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.

The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

The one-vote margin came in part from a few Democratic legislators who had voted against the original bill but stated they voted to override the governor’s veto out of party unity, or, in one case, explicitly because he was trying to curry favor with party leaders. That’s pretty lame, but on the other hand it’s heartening, if almost shocking, to see the Democratic party pull together and actually get something done. The final vote to override was higher than the original vote to pass. Good going, VT Democratic leadership!

Don’t ever imagine that party identity doesn’t matter. As with so many issues, and so often with human rights issues, it was the Democrats who carried the weight and the Republicans who did everything they could to cause trouble. In this case, it was Democrats who formed the bulk of the majority votes for initial passage and the veto override. Of those who switched their positions between the two votes, providing the tiny boost needed to get over the hump and override the veto, the only switchers to the gay-rights position were Democrats; the only one who switched against was a Republican. (There are also a number of third-party members, who apparently all voted for passage. Good goin’, third parties!)

Governor Jim Douglas has been an evasive jerk about the issue – he announced in advance he would veto the bill if it passed (apparently hoping to head off passage so he wouldn’t have to face the issue), and then giving a bunch of weaselly reasons why he did so. He didn’t come out and crusade against it, and he hasn’t been a Bible-basher, but he courted discrimination and then vetoed a bill eliminating it, while criticizing the same bill on procedural grounds:

“What really disappoints me is that we have spent some time on an issue during which another thousand Vermonters have lost their jobs,” the governor said Tuesday. “We need to turn out attention to balancing a budget without raising taxes, growing the economy, putting more people to work.”

Because, for Republicans, it’s never a good time to end discrimination. Time spent passing laws for equality is time wasted. Of course, he could have eliminated a lot of that wastage by not opposing passage originally, using some leverage with his party to prevent a legislative offensive in favor of bigotry, and then not forcing the Leg to do the entire thing over to re-pass the bill by a 66.7% margin after it had already passed by a 64.6% margin on the original vote. But I’m kind of thinking that maximal legislative efficiency wasn’t really what was on his mind when signing away the rights of some of his constituents.

No matter. Republican jerks we have always with us. Some days it’s better than that. This is one of those days. One more state – and not a conspicuously liberal one – has gone for equality; the obvious rightness of that move has become that much more apparent, and so also the pointless emptiness of the pro-bigotry position.

It’s encouraging that this move was made by legislative action. It does not in any way “validate” the outcome any more than a judicial ruling would have done – the courts are supposed to uphold minority rights, especially against discrimination. It is a terrible mistake to wait for a minority’s rights to be recognized by the majority if the law already recognizes them. But the fact that a state legislature can take this step – and then come back and reinforce it over the governor’s obstruction – and keep the support of their constituents, as they likely will, will strengthen the spines of others across the country. VT is not the first state to pass such a law, but it’s the first to make it stick by overriding a veto, and that’s an encouraging sign.

More than that, they simply did the right thing. Faced with every opportunity, and all the usual pressure, to give in to traditional bigotry and discrimination, they went to the effort to make a difference – to do right by people who couldn’t hurt them for doing wrong, in the face of people who would and could for doing right. It’s heartwarming to see. This is a good day for America.

And also: The Washington DC City Council today also passed an ordinance granting legal recognition to same-sex marriages or civil unions from any other state. (This puts the Dems on the spot again, because it has to be ratified by Congress, which does not allow the District to control its own government.) A good day all around, and a great day for DC!