Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Vermont becomes the new state for marriage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fuk YEEAHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was scared when our only shot was to override Gov Douglas's veto.

How to ensure that? There was phone banking emergency to get Vermonters to call legislators.

It was true that only a few minds needed to be converted (we got such huge support the first time).

I have reason to believe in hope again, AND in change of people.

The "how" is going to be the political education that MUST be dissected. But I think that A huge contributor was New England's strong predisposition towards LGBT rights. Vermont and other New England states had strong successes with anti-discrimination laws and some civil union laws. So a predisposition for gay-friendliness was set. Also some progress on transgender-nondiscrimination.

And lets not forget the mighty sea change that made New England born-again-for-the-BETTER: the 2004 legalization of marriage equality in the first state ever: Massachusetts.

When Massachusetts first came on, there were threats made by Bush Jr, then-Governor Mitt Romney, and the fukking VATICAN in Rome, that they would stop this.

Fast forward to today. Gay-friendly African-American Democrat replaced Romney as Governor years ago. Right-wingers tried to erase Massacusetts's victory several times, but group MassEquality beat them down each time, with the help of gay-friendly elected leaders in the elections that happened since '04. Also gay citizens, both married and single, had the guts to tell the truth of their lives to neighbors and elected officials, face to face.



Marc has resigned from MassEquality and now works in the Marriage Department for a group that needs him more than Mass Equality. The same group I volunteered for in my final year of graduation...

Equality California :)

He plans to do a lot of listening before giving solutions.

-----

To sum up, AWESOME thing you did Vermont. And to boot: the FIRST STATE TO DO IT THROUGH THE LEGISLATURE, in stead of the courts. (Though California tried that, twice, and the Terminator voted it down)

No comments: