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Legislature Must Plan an Extension of Marital Rights Benefits & Protections Granted in Historic Decision |
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Compiled By GayToday
Montpelier, Vermont--The Vermont Supreme Court, in a unanimous
first of its kind ruling Monday, ordered the state legislature to extend to
lesbian and gay couples the same rights, protections, benefits and
obligations available to non-gay couples through marriage, Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund said.
Lambda Marriage Project Director Evan Wolfson said, "This is a glorious day. Vermont's highest court has ordered an end to unequal treatment of lesbian and gay families." Chief Justice Jeffrey L. Amestoy, in his 45-page opinion, wrote, "We hold that the State is constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law." He added, "The extension of the Common Benefits Clause to acknowledge plaintiffs as Vermonters who seek nothing more, nor less, than legal protection and security for their avowed commitment to an intimate and lasting human relationship is simply, when all is said and done, a recognition of our common humanity."
While the Court held that all the benefits and protections of marriage must be made equally available, the justices explicitly did not rule on the constitutionality of a "separate but equal" status, extending the benefits and protections of marriage without actually recognizing the relationships of lesbian and gay couples as marriages. In a separate opinion, Associate Justice Denise R. Johnson believed the Court should have gone further by immediately allowing lesbian and gay couples access to civil marriage. "Americans are recognizing that it is time to end this discrimination, which harms so many families," said Lambda Executive Director Kevin M. Cathcart. "While it can take long court battles to secure basic civil rights, we have no doubt that this ruling ensures that our families will see justice," he said.
The Vermont couples appealed to the Supreme Court after a lower court reluctantly dismissed their case in 1997. The trial judge had found all but one of the state's justifications for marriage discrimination "invalid," failing "to even approach a valid public purpose," and "without any common sense or logical basis." The one surviving rationale for denying lesbian and gay couples the freedom-to- marry-- that marriage ensures procreation-- was soundly rejected by the Vermont Supreme Court. The Vermont ruling comes 11 days after the Hawaii Supreme Court stopped short of recognizing the freedom to marry of lesbians and gay men in Baehr v. Anderson. That case is credited with sparking the national discussion about lesbian and gay families and the freedom to marry. Lambda's brief was joined by the Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights and People For the American Way Foundation. Founded in 1973 and with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, Lambda is the nation's oldest and largest legal organization serving lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV/AIDS. (Baker v. Vermont, No. 1009-97CnC) |
