Well, it’s been a big week in the fight for marriage equality. Just four days ago Iowa became the 4th state to grant marriage rights for same-sex couples (and should be the fifth if not for the oh-so-close-but-not-quite vote in California in November), in a unanimous ruling by the state’s Supreme Court. Today the D.C. council voted to recognize marriages performed in other states. It’s a preliminary vote, and we’ll have to wait even after the actual vote in early May since all D.C. laws are subject to US Congressional approval, but it’s a start.
Also today, Vermont–which, in 2000, was the first state to grant civil unions to same-sex couples–set another milestone: they became the first to grant full marriage rights to same-sex couples through the legislative process, overturning a veto by the governor to do so. Think your vote doesn’t matter? Think about this: in Vermont, there must be a 2/3 majority in the house and senate to overturn a veto. The vote in the senate was easy, with 23 senators voting to overturn the veto and only 5 voting against it. In the house it wasn’t so easy. The final vote? 100-49. Just one vote the other way and this would have been a completely different post.
Slowly but surely.
