Same-sex marriage report due: Times Argus Online

Same-sex marriage report due: Times Argus Online
April 17, 2008

By Daniel Barlow Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER – The long-awaited report to the Vermont Legislature on the possibility of expanding marriage rights to same-sex couples will be released Monday.

Tom Little, the chairman of the Vermont Commission on Family Recognition and Protection, said members of the legislatively created group will meet at the Statehouse on Monday at 3 p.m. in Room 10 to unveil their findings.

A preliminary copy of the report – which will detail Vermonters' feelings on gay marriage eight years after the civil unions law – is not yet available, Little said Wednesday, because members are still putting their final touches to it.

"We've been discussing it over e-mail," he said.

Little said members of the group will discuss the highlights of the report at that meeting, the process of holding a series of public hearings across the state and "what lies ahead."

"Of course, what lies ahead is really out of our hands," Little said, referring to possible legislative action that may follow the report.

Democratic leaders of the Vermont House and Senate formed the committee – comprised of 11 Vermonters, including Little, a former Republican state legislator who oversaw the writing of the 2000 civil unions law – last summer to determine if it is time for the state to take the next step in expanding the rights of gays and lesbians.

The commission held a series of public hearings across the state during the fall and winter, and overwhelmingly heard support for changing state law to allow same-sex couples to marry.

According to its charter, the commission will deliver copies of its report to the Judiciary Committees in both the House and Senate – committees that are expected to be shut down or nearing the end of their work this session by the time the report comes out next week.

"We are open to taking their questions if they want to meet," Little said.

Beth Robinson, the chair of the Vermont Freedom to Marry Taskforce and an attorney who successfully argued the court case that led to the civil unions legislation, said Wednesday that she has not yet seen a draft of the report.

"I have no idea what it will say," she said.