Two more victories for marriage equality

(from The Human Rights Campaign)

we celebrate another huge step towards marriage equality not in a matter of months or years, but literally days.

Vermont made history today, as the first state in America to enact marriage equality through legislative process – just FOUR DAYS after another huge win for marriage equality in Iowa.

This is a resounding message about the direction of our country. Not only did the Vermont Legislature vote to support marriage equality, but they did so with a two-thirds majority to override the Governor's veto.

Basic fairness and constitutional equal protection were the linchpins of Friday’s historic Iowa Supreme Court ruling that overturned a 10-year-old ban on same-sex marriage and puts Iowa squarely in the center of the nation’s debate over gay [marriage] rights. (from the DesMoinesRegister.com)

For years I have argued that I don't understand how who else gets married and to whom could possibly affect our marriage. By the way, there are many hetro-sexual marriages that I would rule out, before any gay marriages. But the bottom line is that in a democracy we can't just deprive people of their rights because we want to. If anyone can get married, everyone can get married.I'm much more concerned about women being brutalized within marriage than the gender of the marriage partners.

Rachel Maddow on MSNBC says "we have reporters on the ground in Vermont and the sky has not fallen yet." She also reminds us that the Washington, DC council has voted to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere.