LOCAL: ZUCKERMAN ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY

I'm sharing this post submitted to the local Front Porch Neighborhood Forums. It is a detailed, forthright, excellent analysis by State Rep. David Zuckerman of Burlington of the differences between civil unions and marriage (and why this marriage equality bill should be passed). The VT House will vote on its own marriage equality bill this coming week.

By David Zuckerman, State Representative - Chittenden-3-4, Germain St,
Fri, 27 March 2009

Thank you to those who have contacted me regarding the marriage issue. As some may know...I have been working for this issue since the Civil Union discussion. At that time we knew we were making huge strides forward for equality, but also that there were several issues with a separate classification that inherantly made civil unions less than marriage.

Sorry for the long posting, but the importance of this issue is too great. Please feel free to send this to anyone you know and/or post this on other forums, facebook, or wherever you feel it would be appropriate.

I am writing this post to give a couple of the actual legal differences that have become apparent. There are some that will immediately be impacted by this change and others that will require federal action. But I wanted to make sure folks understood that this change will have an immediate legal impact for many in the Gay and Lesbian community.

There are also the non-legal issues of stigmatism etc. that come with a separate law. I will address those as well.

First...legal issues. Two primary areas apply.

1) A same sex couple in a civil union in Vermont is not recognized by the laws of the State of NY or Massachusettes (they are recognized by the laws of NH). What this means is that a Vermonter who works in NY or Mass does not automatically have the benefits that are provided by their employer conveyed to their spouse. By voting for marriage we would end this unequal treatment that does not apply to currently married heterosexual couples in Vermont under the same working scenario.

2) There are large national companies that are self insured (health insurance). Many of them have employees in many of the 50 states. H&R block could be a typical example, although I do not know their specific policy. Under self insurance plans, marriages are automatically recognized, whereas, it takes specific legal action (internally) by those companies to make sure their self insurance plan covers their employees partners who are recognized through a civil union. For many of these companies this is too small a group (they might have 20,000 employees nationally and only a handful or two in Vermont) to even know they are being excluded. For them to then take the additional effort to deal with the legal issues is unlikely. There would be actual costs associated with changing their plans even though the change would ultimately be negligible as far as their long term costs. If/when we recognize these unions as marriages we remove this obstacle to equality.

There are many federal benefits (approximately 1400) as well as "portability" issues that are related to civil unions and DOMA (the defense of marriage act). While civil unions are recognized in NH and a couple of other states, marriage would be recognized in more states. If the Obama adminstration fulfills its campaign promise to recind the federal DOMA legislation and we have (by then) changed our law from civil unions to marriage then great steps will have been made to get towards full legal equality.

As for the stigma...this is something that many live with everyday. When an individual on the GL community is asked by someone "are you married?" They either need to lie/bend the truth, or explain that no...they are recognized by government as legally something different. This can have tremendous implications for individuals who are living in communities that may not be as accepting/embracing as Burlington (Where there are still issues as well). In many smaller communities people's private lives are whispered about (relating to this and many other things I might add), as folks are less anonymous.

As I spoke with one legislator today (I will use "they" to keep their identity private) they indicated that it would clearly be difficult for one of their constituents to regularly eat out at the restaurant in their town with their partner. That they believe that person probably comes to Burlington to eat out as it is not an issue here where it would be in their town. Passing marriage legislation will not change some of those feelings of some members of that persons community. But over time, the stigma's and stereotypes will diminish more rapidly than they will if we do not take this step forward to recognize the value of every loving couple.

I will be working diligently in every spare moment I have (between committee hearings on how to raise revenue to reduce the draconian cuts proposed in the budget and between floor votes on Yankee decommisioning etc.) to discuss these issues with my undecided and internally struggling colleagues. There are still a handful of Democrats and a handful of Republicans who I believe can be persuaded. In discussions just today, I know of three Republicans who are deeply challenged by this issue and their upbringing, the proportion of the messages they have received from their constituents, and the presentation of the facts above.

9 years ago when we passed civil unions I was one of 22 votes for a marriage amendment. We have clearly progressed a very long way since then. We know we have more than 75 votes, and we believe we are close to the veto proof 100. In 2000, I watched legislators struggle up until the day of the vote, and we had a few positive surprises. I am hopeful that we can get that same fortune (through hard work) this time.

Throughout history, the rights of the minority would rarely have been confered by a vote of the majority in the day. It was only through the courage of political leaders, or through the courts that we have made such progress. I am hopeful that such courage will be displayed when we vote next week. But I urge anyone who supports this legislation to contact your friends across the state to get positive calls to their legislators (even supportive ones), and to contact the Governors office http://governor.vermont.gov/contact.html or 802 828-3333 (toll-free in VT only: 800 649-6825) and ask him to please reconsider vetoing the bill even if we do not get to 100 votes for equality.

Thank you-
Rep. David Zuckeman

PS...please contact me at davidz@together.net or dzuckerman@leg.state.vt.us for more information or go to the freedom to marry website at http://www.vtfreetomarry.org for more daily updates.