Jan 26, 2007  |  By: ELIZABETH A. PERRY  | COMMENTS     

As legislative sessions get under way in statehouses across the country, same-sex marriage is again emerging as a hot topic in a handful of states.

From Vermont to California, gay rights advocates are hopeful for advances in
marriage-related legislation, while in Massachusetts, where gay marriage is already legal, activists are working to avert a repeal of the historic gay rights measure.

Massachusetts

A constitutional amendment to repeal the Bay State’s gay marriage law passed 134-62 on Jan. 2, the final day of the 2005-06 session. The amendment still has to survive another legislative vote in the new session to become a ballot referendum. The measure needed 50 votes to pass.

If ratified by voters, it would take away the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry after Jan. 1, 2009, according to the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts.

Despite the outcome, Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, said there is reason for hope.

“The new legislature has more pro-marriage legislators combined with a new pro-marriage governor,” he said. “This will allow wiser heads to prevail. If it gets on the ballot, we will defeat it, but I would rather spend our resources for other states in their battles for marriage equality.”

New York

The prospects for full marriage equality are looking up in New York state, where Gov. Eliot Spitzer was sworn in Jan. 1. Joe Tarver, communications director of Empire State Pride Agenda, said his organization has every confidence that Spitzer will make good on his promise to propose same-sex marriage legislation.

“He’s been upfront about where he stands and we are taking him at his word,” Tarver said.

The state doesn’t have a domestic partnership law but it does grant domestic partners the right to visit their partners in the hospital. It also grants them the right of possession of remains, should one of the partners die. It also grants health benefits to domestic partners of state employees. While New York City and some other cities, towns and counties have domestic partnership registries, Tarver said not all of them have specific rights attached.

“Some localities have domestic partnership benefits but it’s piecemeal depending on where people live,” he said. “Gay couples in one county may not have any domestic partnership rights, while in other areas they have health insurance and employee partner benefits.”

According to Pride Agenda’s legislative scorecard, released Jan. 16, support for gay marriage legislation in the General Assembly is up from 35 members in Sept. 2006 to 51 members as of last week. There are 150 members in both houses of the N.Y. legislature.

Tarver said Pride Agenda is working hard to make marriage equality a reality in the state and to get a vote in the general assembly this year.

“Over the last three years we have been busy building support,” he said. “We haven’t just been sitting back and waiting. We have been building committed LGBT activists across the state who have been contacting their elected officials about the issue.”

Vermont

Since civil union legislation was passed by the Vermont Legislature almost seven years ago, gay marriage bills have shown sluggish movement in the Vermont General Assembly. In an interview with Vermont’s Channel 3 News earlier this month, Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force executive chair Beth Robinson said she remains hopeful about the latest effort.

“The world has changed so much since 2000, and we’ve got marriage equality to the south of us in Massachusetts, and marriage equality to the north of us in Canada,” she said. “We knew then the conversation wasn’t over and the time is right to come back to the table and move forward.”

Robinson said she expects the latest bill to be introduced within the next three weeks by Rep. Mark Larsen (D-Burlington). She said the bill will include provisions to protect religious freedom.

“No clergy person or religious community will be compelled to solemnize any marriage against its faith,” she said. “This is not a threat to religious freedom. We are not asking the Catholic Church to perform gay marriages, but we are asking that the laws of our state treat all citizens evenhandedly.”

Robinson said her organization is busy ramping up its grassroots organizing and expanding its staff to advance marriage rights in the state.

California 

Jan. 1 marked a turning point for gay rights in California when eight new domestic partnership laws took effect. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, in a statement, said the state “stands head and shoulders above any other state in treating all its people equally ...