'Civil Unions' Father Paved Way for Vermont's Marriage Breakthrough

Vermont lawyer Tom Little is still the proud papa of "civil unions," nine years after introducing them to the world. But he no longer sees them as good enough to take the place of marriage.

And neither does Vermont.

In a wonderful breakthrough Tuesday, the state's legislature became the first to open marriage to gay couples by overriding a governor's veto.

"The struggle for equal rights is never easy. I was proud to be president of the Senate nine years ago when Vermont created civil unions," Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said Tuesday.

"I have never felt more proud of Vermont as we become the first state in the country to enact marriage equality not as the result of a court order, but because it is the right thing to do," he added.

To really understand how Vermont reached this marvelous place, we must look back to Little.

He chaired the Judiciary Committee of his state's House when it coined the phrase "civil unions."

The state's top court had ordered lawmakers to be fair to marriage-minded gay couples. "Initially," Little recalls, "there was a certain amount of panic. 'Oh, my God, now we've got to deal with this!'"

Little saw no chance of enacting the simple solution: opening marriage to same-sex couples. So, his committee scrambled to find another way to deliver the "bundle of rights" associated with marriage.

They rejected "domestic partnership" for sounding like "being hired to do laundry" and being linked elsewhere to very limited rights.

With civil unions, most committee members "genuinely believed we were creating a parallel and equal legal system," Little told me.

Civil unions proved to be an important way station on the road to full equality — offering in Vermont in July 2000 protections previously unavailable to America's gay couples.

The option was embraced by Connecticut (2005), New Jersey (2007) and New Hampshire (2008).

Although even today civil unions would represent a huge advance in most states, they are, as Little now sees, a stopover, not a destination.

"What I have come to understand is that I was wrong.

(Marriage) is greater than the sum of its parts."

The ex-lawmaker reached that conclusion on a listening tour as the head of a commission instructed to find out how civil unions had worked out.

On March 24, Little, himself married 31 years, reported back to his old committee: "The promise (of equality) has not been fulfilled."

Just days after being urged to upgrade to marriage the legal status available to gay couples, Vermont's Senate and House overwhelming embraced the idea.

Gov. Jim Douglas turned into a roadblock, vetoing the bill Monday. But the Senate overrode him, 23 to five. So did the House, 100 to 49.

Amidst the activity in Vermont, marriage passed the House in neighboring New Hampshire.

To New Hampshire's east, one-third of the Maine legislature is co-sponsoring marriage legislation. To Vermont's south, gay couples are marrying in Massachusetts (2004) and Connecticut (2008).

The Midwest got in on the action on April 3, when Iowa's Supreme Court unanimously opted to go directly to marriage, not stop somewhere along the way.

Iowa's Senate majority leader and House speaker cheered: "When all is said and done, we believe the only lasting question ... will be why it took us so long."

Vermont really got the ball rolling by becoming the first state to attempt to share all of marriage's rights and responsibilities with gay couples.

And Tom Little's inspiring story is proof that fair-minded lawmakers can grow to understand that there is no substitute for allowing gay couples to marry.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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