Vt. House Approves Gay Marriage Ban

M O N T P E L I E R, Vt., March 16 -- An explicit ban on gay marriage passedthe Vermont House today, but it will not get a warm receptionin the Senate.

With no debate, the bill passed the House on a voice vote,belying the emotional, three-hour debate that the issue generated aday before during preliminary approval.

The bill would affect only the state's marriage statutes, notthe groundbreaking civil union law that passed the House exactly ayear ago. Civil unions run parallel to marriage, granting all ofits rights, benefits and responsibilities, but remain a separatestatutory scheme.

Political Payback

The easy passage of the anti-gay marriage bill demonstrated howstrongly the Republicans now control the House. They ousted HouseDemocrats in last year's elections, taking the majority for thefirst time in 14 years, based on voter anger over civil unions.

"I think the message is the Republican Party of Vermont isdependent on an anti-civil unions backlash and anti-gay sentimentto win control back of the Vermont House," said Rep. WilliamLippert, D-Hinesburg, one of two openly gay members of the House.

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"This bill and others you're going to see are political payback tothe most conservative wing of the Republican Party, which continuesto have the goal of repealing civil unions and passing aconstitutional amendment regarding marriage."

Democrats retained control of the Vermont Senate and Gov. HowardDean, a Democrat, won re-election. Senators have no intention ofsending the gay marriage ban on to the governor.

"I quite frankly don't see the necessity for it," said SenateJudiciary Committee Chairman Richard Sears, D-Bennington. "Unlessthere were a groundswell on the committee that I haven't heard thusfar, we won't take it up."

Partisanship, Anti-Gay Bias Alleged

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin echoed many of thesentiments heard in the House during the heart of the debateearlier in the week.

He said the Legislature had defined marriage as the unionbetween one man and one woman in the civil unions law last year,and the only reason for the bill that passed the House was to makea political statement. He suggested that the House bill was anexample of anti-gay bias.