Vermont becomes #4; Watch D.C. next

The Vermont Legislature legalized same-sex marriages today, overriding Gov. Jim Douglas's veto of the bill by the slimmest of margins in the Vermont House of Representatives, 100-49. The bill required 100 votes to pass; a key Democrat switched his vote after voting against the bill last week.

In 2000, Vermont became the first state to legalize civil unions (as the NY Times story notes, New Jersey and New Hampshire later did the same). Gay rights advocates in Maine and Rhode Island have pushed for the legalization of same-sex marriages, arguing that civil unions do not go far enough, and make gay couples appear unequal.

I agree. This post discusses the differences between civil unions and marriage, and there are many. Because the federal government does not recognize civil unions, such couples cannot file taxes jointly or enjoy benefits conferred to married couples. In a 1997 letter responding to a former Illinois representative, Henry Hyde, the General Accounting Office identified 1,049 federal laws "in which marital status is a factor." The office divided these into 13 categories:

1. Social Security and Related Programs, Housing, and Food Stamps
2. Veterans' Benefits
3. Taxation
4. Federal Civilian and Military Service Benefits
5. Employment Benefits and Related Laws
6. Immigration, Naturalization, and Aliens
7. Indians
8. Trade, Commerce, and Intellectual Property
9. Financial Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
10. Crimes and Family Violence
11. Loans, Guarantees, and Payments in Agriculture
12. Federal Natural Resources and Related Laws
13. Miscellaneous Laws

Numbers three (taxation) and four (federal and military benefits) contain 179 and 270 provisions, respectively. Benefits available to married couples include deductions of estate taxes, gifts of property, government-assisted relocations, as well as health benefits, life insurance benefits, and retirement annuities for surviving spouses. None of these benefits are available to couples in civil unions. Federal employees with a sick spouse are also entitled to unpaid leave, a benefit not conferred on single persons, or persons in a civil union.

Civil unions will not last. Within five or ten years, most of the blue states — and some red ones, too — will have legalized gay marriage either by legislative fiat (Vermont) or through the courts (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa). This is a very good thing.

In what may become the most publicized battle for same-sex marriage, the District of Columbia City Council also voted today, 12–0, for a bill to allow recognition of gay marriages. Mayor Adrian Fenty supports gay marriage, but for the bill to become D.C. law, Congress must give its approval.

The California Supreme Court is still weighing its decision whether to uphold Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment which banned gay marriage in the nation's most populous state. Also watch Minnesota to see if it's the next state in the Midwest to legalize same-sex marriage.