Okay, so “Hail to Vermont” is no longer the official state song. But it makes a great headline today.
The great seal of Vermont reads: Freedom & Unity, both of which got just a hair truer today when the legislature overrode the governor’s veto of marriage equality. Four states down, forty-six to go.
Herewith, a smattering of links to articles:
- • Burlington Free Press: “Vermont legalizes gay marriage”
- • Pam’s House Blend: “Fundies gone wild: reaction to Vermont”
- • NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter statement: “The National Center for Lesbian Rights Hails Vermont Marriage Victory”
- • HRC Back Story (via Bilerico Project): “VICTORY! Vermont Votes for Marriage Equality!” (Includes on-the-ground commentary from HRC’s National Field Director Marty Rouse.)
- • New York Times: “Vermont Legislature Makes Same-Sex Marriage Legal”
You have got to look at the NYT piece, not just to review the mainstream media coverage, but for the photo, also carried at the Burlington Free Press article. Compare these weeping, bespectacled grey-haired women to the image, promulgated by fundamentalist reaction to the vote, of a “sodomy squadron” “thumbing its nose at God.” (per Pam’s piece) Hmm. Thinking the fundamentalist reaction’s a bit off-base? Maybe?
Lesbian Dad is written by a parent who answers to the name "Baba" and works toward a world in which amor does indeed vincit omnia. 
Unlurking to say how lovely it is to think that, at least according to some people who feel pretty certain about it, the sun that rises today on a country made more just is precisely the sun that rose when the world was first made. Today’s shadows are the shadows of the first day of light.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/nyregion/07sun.html
(One of my favorite things about the brain is how it can believe more than one thing at once. I believe that the world is billions of years old and that this is the sun of creation.)
How beautifully, beautifully put (and thank you for unlurking to say so!)
I am a big fan of paradox and the belief in two seemingly contradictory things. Like, say, the power of love and the power of fear. What a very apt week for love to win out.
The grey haired women in the NYT photo are Sherry Corbin, who’s a board member/county coordinator at Vermont Freedom to Marry; Beth Robinson, head of VT Freedom to Marry, and Susan Murray, who with Robinson was local co-counsel on Baker v. State, the case the led to civil unions in Vermont a decade ago. I’ve enjoyed seeing all the photos from the Vermont statehouse, but it was particularly nice to see the photos capturing Robinson and Murray’s reactions as the vote was announced.
Thank you for the ID’ing, Susan. I’d seen that they were named in the NYT credits, but hadn’t seen what role they played. I figured they were actors of some significance, though. What a journey for them, for Vermonters, and (by proxy, and from a distance) for us all.
Here’s one more ID for you: on the Burlington Free Press story, the Sandi and Bobbi id-ed in the photo at right are a couple who have been together for 42 years (info I picked up from captions over at Karen Pike’s photoblog–http://kpikephoto.bigfolioblog.com/ –which has a set of great photos.
LD, hopefully it won’t be too long before we’re once again waxing rhapsodic about marriage possibilities in CA. Enjoy your weekend away.