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Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples Online from 1995-2022 Demian and Steve Bryant originally founded Partners as a monthly newsletter in 1986. By late 1990 it was reformatted into a bi-monthly magazine. Print publication was halted by 1995 when Demian published Partners as a Web site, which greatly expanded readership. In 1988, the Partners National Survey of Lesbian & Gay Couples report was published; the first major U.S. survey on same-sex couples in a decade. In 1996, Demian produced The Right to Marry, a video documentary based on the dire need for equality that was made clear by the data from the survey mentioned above. The video featured interviews with Rev. Mel White, Evan Wolfson, Phyllis Burke, Richard Mohr, Kevin Cathcart, Faygele benMiriam, Benjamin Cable-McCarthy, Susan Reardon, Frances Fuchs, Tina Podlodowski, and Chelle Mileur. Demian has been the sole operator during the last two decades of Partners. Demian stopped work on Partners Task Force in order to realize his other time-consuming projects, which include publishing the book “Operating Manual for Same-Sex Couples: Navigating the rules, rites & rights” - which is now available on Amazon. The book is based on the Partners Survey mentioned above, his interviews of scores of couples, and 36 years of writing hundreds of articles about same-sex couples. It’s also been informed by his personal experience in a 20-year, same-sex relationship. Demian’s other project is to publish his “Photo Stories by Demian” books based on his more than six decades as a photographer and writer. |
On April 7, 2009, Vermont became the 5th American state to offer full, legal marriage to same-sex couples. The law became effective on September 1, 2009. It is the 1st state to create marriage equality by legislative vote, rather than by court order.
The right to legal marriage in Vermont began with a suit, which won. However, the court gave the legislature the option of providing legal marriage or a similar status, which resulted in Civil Unions. Vermont - 1997 Landmark Suit Three same-sex Vermont couples filed suit for the right to marry in Chittenden Superior Court, Burlington, Vermont, on July 22, 1997, in Baker v. State of Vermont. The couples, Stan Baker and Peter Harrigan, Nina Beck and Stacy Jolles, and Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh, sued the State of Vermont as well as Shelburne, South Burlington and Milton, because the town clerks refused to issue marriage licenses to the couples.
After losing the first court hearing on December 19, 1997, the Vermont suit for legal marriage for same-sex couples got a mixed result in the final ruling on December 20, 1999. The court stated: “We hold that the State is constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law. Whether this ultimately takes the form of inclusion within the marriage laws themselves or a parallel ‘domestic partnership’ system or some equivalent statutory alternative, rests with the Legislature. Whatever system is chosen, however, must conform with the constitutional imperative to afford all Vermonters the common benefit, protection, and security of the law.”Based on the Vermont Constitution, the ruling establishes the necessity to treat all families alike — no matter what their make-up — but the ruling does not remedy the situation by immediately requiring the state to issue licenses. Instead it required the legislature to institute marriage or some kind of “domestic partnership” or “registered partnership law.” The court states that a partnership law would “generally establish an alternative legal status to marriage for same-sex couples, impose similar formal requirements and limitations, create a parallel licensing or registration scheme, and extend all or most of the same rights and obligations provided by the law to married partners.” The court did not consider that such a task is likely to be impossible. It was tried in Hawaii and miserably failed. Such a partnership law would need to duplicate more than 870 Vermont laws that are triggered by legal marriage. Further, a partnership law (as opposed to a marriage license) would not be recognized by any other state, nor by the Federal system (including such rights as immigration and social security benefits).
Nor did the court consider the separate and unequal nature inherent in a domestic partner status. Rather than offer legal marriage — the same procedure to protect families as is offered to opposite-sex couples — the Vermont legislature created a new law labeled “Civil Union.” By designing a totally separate form of marriage, which could rightly be called “marriage light,” they created an apartheid. As the U.S. Supreme Court ruled regarding segregation, there is no such thing as separate and equal. Civil Unions — effective July 1, 2000 except for provisions relating to insurance and taxes that become effective in 2001 — do not have any legal weight in the Federal sphere, and it is highly unlikely that any other state will honor the new, almost-but-not-quite-marital license.
The new status, however, does offer a vastly improved range of protections for same-sex couples never before available in the United States. Those couples who live in Vermont, once signed up as a civilly unionized couple, can say they are no longer “legal strangers” — they are finally “next-of-kin.” Bill S.115 for legal marriage was introduced and vetoed by the governor Jim Douglas (Republican). On April 7, 2009, the House overrode the veto 100-49, and the Senate passed the override 23-5, making Vermont the first state to embrace marriage equality through representatives without a court order.
The law became effective on September 1, 2009. Vermont is the 5th U.S. state to offer full, legal marriage to same-sex couples.
Two people are eligible to marry in Vermont if they are:
Vermont Department of Health, Vital Records Unit 108 Cherry St., PO Box 70, Burlington, VT 05402 863-7275; 800-439-5008
Sample Rights
Military The armed services would likely consider marriage to a same-sex spouse as grounds for a discharge under its discriminatory policies towards lesbian and gay personnel. Immigration Since the federal system does not recognize same-sex couples, or their legal marriages, getting married does not offer a route to applying for immigration. There currently is no process that allows a same-sex partner to sponsor a partner for immigration to the U.S. There is no process that allows an individual to sponsor their same-sex partner to become a "Permanent Legal Resident." In the eyes of the American federal system, same-sex couples are legal strangers. Non-Vermont Residents Partners who are not Vermont citizens may be married in Vermont. However, because many state laws forbid recognition of another state’s same-sex legal marriage license, a civil marriage license would have little or no legal meaning. Also, it is possible that a Vermont couple would get married, then move elsewhere. While it is certain that the federal system will refuse to recognize the license, it is now known that most states will likewise refuse to recognize it. In the Event of a Couple Parting Vermont divorce requires 1 year residency. Because many states refuse to recognize a same-sex marriage license, divorce would likely be impossible unless at least one partner still lived in Vermont. If you live in a state that does not honor your marriage — which may not be determined until requesting something usually triggered by a marriage license — the state courts will also be unlikely to grant you a divorce.
The ability to divorce is critical. Besides the emotional reasons to dissolve a no longer functioning union, there are legal entanglements to consider. For instance, should one of the partners form a new relationship, they would not be able to sign up their new partner for workplace benefits. Most employers require an affidavit that stipulates that the partners are not married to anyone else or have another domestic partner.
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