Gov. Howard Dean
MONTPELIER, Vt. - Just days after the state's lower House passed it, a bill allowing the closest thing in the United States to gay marriage has preliminary approval in the state Senate.
A vote on final approval is set for April 19, and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has said he'd sign the bill.
The preliminary vote came down after the full Senate shot down two constitutional amendments that would have outlawed same-sex marriage. If it gets final Senate approval, the lower House would have to consider any changes in the Senate version.
The bill would let gay couples create civil unions, entitling them to all rights and benefits available to heterosexual married couples under state law. They would not, however, be entitled to such federal benefits as married couples can claim.
It would also make Vermont the first state to go so far as to acknowledge gay relationships in a fashion similar to heterosexual marriage. But it would not entail so-called "portable rights," since other states do not recognize gay partnerships or marriages this way.
Senators who oppose the bill tell the Associated Press that's mostly based on constituent feedback, though some also said they fear national and international reactions. "All of the United States and the world will judge our decision today,'' said Sen. Julius Canns, a Republican who tried to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman only. A second amendment proposal would have shot down the state Supreme Court ruling that made the gay union measure possible in the first place.
That ruling, in December 1999, said same-sex couples were denied marriage benefits unconstitutionally, and left it up to state lawmakers to rectify the situation.
