With five votes shy of the two-thirds
majority needed to override a promised veto by Governor Jim Douglas
the Vermont House passed a gay marriage bill late last night.
Senators had already approved the measure by a veto-proof majority of
26-4.
The Democratic-led House vote of 95 to
52 came after about five hours of passionate debate on both sides.
Douglas, a Republican, promised last
week that he would veto the legislation should it reach his desk and
chided lawmakers for not focusing on the economy. He said civil
unions, which Vermont was first to embrace in 2000, sufficed.
Hundreds of gay marriage supporters and
opponents rallied outside the State House and filled the chamber's
gallery to hear the debate.
“The promise of full equality of the
marriage statutes that we held out in 2000 by creating civil unions,
we believe, has not been fulfilled,” Rep. William Lippert, an
openly gay Democrat, said on the floor.
Rep. Albert “Sonny” Audette, a
Democrat from South Burlington, said his religious convictions would
not permit him to approve of gay marriage but spoke of his respect
for supporters.
“I am a devout Catholic,” Audette
said. “My religion at this point would not want me to vote for
this. I wish that I could and I hope for the best and I congratulate
the people who are trying to get this through.”
Alarm bells sounded around 6PM when
less than a two-thirds majority voted down a proposed amendment to
hold a referendum on the issue after an hour's debate. The vote on
the bill was nearly identical.
Gay marriage bills have also been
introduced in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine this year,
shifting the gay marriage debate from California back to its New
England roots.
If Vermont legalizes gay marriage, it
will become the first state to do so legislatively.