Vermont passes gay marriage! And D.C. moving along, too!

[chicken]

Gay marriage legalized in Vermont. The vote in the House was 100-49, which I thought meant some last-minute scrounging for a very few votes, and indeed, the story behind four of those five votes is quite fascinating. I love the guy who changed his vote from "I am a Catholic and have to vote against gay marriage" to "I am pissed off at being dissed by the governor so nyeh, diss ya back!"

And it's very moving to see how they got that very last vote, the good old-fashioned way, people calling their legislators. “Many supporters – mostly straight and many not historically political – have stepped up to the plate,” Robinson said. That just about makes me cry.

So soon after the Iowa victory, this is such good news.

And check it out, D.C. Council Votes to Recognize Other States' Gay Marriages. That's enough to make me want to move, in spite of the expense. WOW. That would mean our Massachusetts marriage license would be recognized. That's just amazing. With the District's relative disenfranchisement (not having Representation in Congress), and with the stupid federal DOMA still in effect, I wonder what the tangible benefits would be? Just not being in Virginia, which is so actively hateful toward gay people, would certainly be one tangible effect.

Now of course I'm wondering about Rhode Island, which I consider my home state. This New York Times article has some things to say about Rhode Island, including, Advocates of same-sex marriage in Rhode Island said they were aiming for legislative approval in 2011. That is when Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican who is against same-sex marriage, will leave office because of term limits.

Furthermore, the legislative landscape in Rhode Island has changed a lot since the last time around, and according to kerri9494, there are a lot of interesting candidates for governor in 2011, including Lincoln Chafee, who is so much more liberal than Carcieri, it's dizzying.

All of this definitely makes the whole Prop. 8 thing less horrifying.

Comments

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Oh, they'll slap it down. They don't even want DC to be able to make its own gun laws. Home rule isn't at all what you think it is. Home rule means Congress can do what the hell it wants. The only thing stopping them from completely running roughshod over the Council is fear of how it will make them look.

[anelith.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's too bad. You're always hearing conservatives talk about "states rights" and of course D.C. isn't a state but I thought there might be some small bit of that principle at work here.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

It's not a state, and the Republicans don't want it to become one, because something like 80% of the residents are Democrats.