Vermont legalizes same-sex 'marriage' with veto override
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 4/7/2009 10:35:00 AM
Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize homosexual marriage -- and the first to do so with a legislature's vote. The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing homosexuals to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override. The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.
Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs for Liberty Counsel, poses this question: "How long can a nation founded on the laws of nature and nature's God expect to find favor in his eyes when we continue to mock God?"
Vermont's decision, he believes, sends waves throughout the country -- including the nation's capitol. "I believe that the purveyors of evil around the country feel emboldened right now with the current political climate in Washington, DC," Barber states, what with both the Oval Office and Congress inhabited by "people who are bent on thumbing their nose at God."
Barber believes states without constitutional amendments to protect marriage need to speed the process. In addition, he warns that if the Obama administration is successful in overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, even conservative states may have to recognize homosexual marriages legal in other jurisdictions.
Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council closely monitored the vote. "It's particularly disappointing that there were at least three legislators who betrayed the institution of marriage by switching their vote," Sprigg laments. "Fifty-two had voted against this bill last week. That would have been enough to sustain the veto -- but only 49 voted against it [on Tuesday]." He suggests that Vermont voters may want to keep those individuals in mind when they come up for re-election.
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Sprigg also points out this is the first time that any state has ever enacted same-sex marriage through any kind of democratic process. "All of the other states that currently have same-sex marriage -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, and soon to be Iowa -- have had it imposed upon them through judicial activism by their state supreme court," he observes.
Sprigg also notes that the Washington, DC, council has voted to recognize homosexual marriages in states where it is legal.
