Vt. House Votes for Civil Unions

The Vermont House approved legislation Thursday that would create the closest thing to gay marriage America has seen.

If the bill allowing gays to form “civil unions” becomes law, the state will have gone further than any other in recognizing same-sex couples.

The House voted, 76 to 69, to forward the bill to the state Senate, where it is expected to win approval by the end of next month. The legislation has the support of Democratic Gov. Howard Dean.

Fourteen Republicans, 57 Democrats, four Progressives and one independent voted in favor in the House.

A crowd of at least 150 people lined the galleries and balconies of the House chamber as lawmakers cast their votes. Many wore their feelings on their lapels: pink stickers for supporters, white for opponents.

Gay-rights advocates beamed, wept and hugged each other and supportive lawmakers. “We did it!” said Chuck Kletecka of Waterbury.

“This certainly is groundbreaking,” said Peg Byron of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay advocacy group. “I think it really sets a moral as well as a legislative example for the rest of the country.”

Gay couples who form civil unions would be entitled to about 300 state benefits or privileges available to married couples in such areas as inheritance, property transfers, medical decisions, insurance and taxes. Such couples could file a joint state income tax return, for example.

The federal government still would not recognize such unions with regard to such things as immigration rights, Social Security and federal taxes.

Congress and more than 30 states have passed laws denying recognition of same-sex “marriages” performed in other states. Nonetheless, some suggest those state laws might not apply to same-sex “civil unions” performed in Vermont.

Susan Murray, a lawyer and advocate of gay marriage, said it’s an open question whether couples from another state might be able to enter civil unions in Vermont and have them recognized in their home state.

“It totally depends on what state laws say in that other state and what courts would interpret in that other state,” Murray said. “Other states have structures called marriage that they already recognize. They don’t have structures called civil unions.”

The Vermont bill provides for unions that amount to marriage in everything but name. Partners could apply for a license from town clerks and have their civil union “certified” by a justice of the peace, a judge or a member of the clergy.