Vermont Joins the Ranks of States with Marriage Equality

This morning Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. The Vermont House and Senate chose to override Governor Jim Douglas’ veto with a 100-49 vote in the House and a 23-5 vote in the Senate.
Nine years ago, Vermont became the first state to offer civil unions. Today it made history again by being the first state to successfully use the Legislative process to enact marriage equality. (California’s legislature previously approved marriage equality; however, that bill was vetoed by the Governor.)
Monica Canfield Lenfest, COLAGE Kids of Trans Coordinator and a native of Rutland, Vermont reflected, “I am so proud to be a Vermonter! It’s exciting to see the progress of a state that passed the first civil unions bill and has now enacted full marriage equality even in the face of enormous backlash and an unsupportive governor. As a COLAGEr, too, I am glad that LGBTQ families in Vermont will soon have access to the protections of marriage as well as the validation that comes from the Vermont State Legislature’s commitment to equality.”
To read the full story, see this article from the NY Times.