:: Baker v. State | Vermont Victory!

On Dec. 20, 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that denying same-sex couples access to the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual married couples is discriminatory. In a unanimous ruling, the Court found that same-sex couples in Vermont are entitled to all the protections and benefits provided by law to opposite-sex married couples. In its decision, the Court made clear that "[t]he issue. . does not turn on the religious or moral debate over intimate same-sex relationships, but rather on the statutory and constitutional basis for the exclusion of same-sex couples from the secular benefits and protections offered married couples."

The opinion concluded that the state constitution "acknowledges the plaintiffs (three same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses) as Vermonters who seek nothing more, nothing less, than legal protection and security for their avowed commitment to an intimate and lasting human relationship is simply, when all is said and done, a recognition of our common humanity."

The Court did not decide whether same-sex couples are constitutionally entitled to civil marriage licenses. Instead, the Court referred the matter to the state legislature to craft a remedy for same-sex couples.

Now, after months of public hearings, the Vermont legislature appears on the verge of enacting "civil unions" for same-sex couples. It is not marriage, but it attempts to provide the state benefits of marriage. This victory will signal to courts and lawmakers in other states that justice and equality for our families are, as the Vermont Supreme Court so eloquently stated, "recognition of our common humanity."


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