It's official today. Vermont, although the first state to offer same-sex couples civil unions, has just become the fourth state in the U.S. to offer completely equal marriage rights to those couples. I have to wonder about the people in the other 46 states, who still think that barring some U.S. citizens from equal rights is perfectly okay. When will we all figure out that excluding law-abiding, tax-paying citizens from having completely equal rights is not good for democracy and that a separate, but theoretically equal, substitute still isn't equal? It wasn't back in the fight for equal rights for our African American citizens, and it still isn't right in a day and age when we should know better.
The U.S. is way behind the rest of the so-called "advanced" countries in granting ALL of its citizens equal rights under the law. Truthfully, however, none of these countries offer true equality, no matter what the wording, since, as far as I know, no country extends the same tax benefits to same-sex couples as those received by heterosexual couples. However, every step in the direction of equality is a positive step that should be celebrated.
http://lesbianlife.about.com/b/2009/09/01/get-married-today-in-vermont.htm
Editor of AGNADL
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