Vermont Gay Marriage Foes Seek Support Out Of State
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: January 21, 2008 - 11:00 am ET

(Montpellier, Vermont) A conservative group that boycotted legislative hearings on a proposed gay marriage bill in Vermont has reached out to organizations across the country to boost its opposition to gay unions.

Vermont Renewal, an organization that for most of its history has fought all LGBT legislation in the state, has created its own commission to hold public hearings throughout the state called "Marriage Matters".

At its first "hearing" the group drew about 100 people to hear speakers from Utah and Washington, DC.

Monte Stewart of the Marriage Law Foundation in Utah called same-sex marriage "genderless marriage" and said it lead to a breakdown of traditional families and endanger children. 

"Marriage can be the union between man and woman or it can be the union of any two people," Stewart said. "Vermont cannot have both."

A second speaker, Patrick Fagan of the conservative Family Research Council in Washington, and a former researcher for the Heritage Foundation also said that opening marriage to same-sex couples would harm children.

Fagan produced a series of statistics from mostly conservative groups that he said show children who do not grow up in households with opposite-sex parents are more likely to have problems in school, socially and in the workplace. 

Fagan discounted studies that have shown the opposite. In 2006 the nation's largest pediatricians group said that children would benefit from the legalization of same-sex marriage. (story)

The kickoff of the anti-gay-marriage "hearings" came as the legislature's committee nears the end of its public hearings on marriage.

The state appointed commission was set up last year to look into Vermont's civil unions law and determine if the law should be amended to provide for same-sex marriage. 

It is chaired by former state Rep. Tom Little (D). When he was a member of the legislature Little was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, when it passed the law legalizing civil unions in 2000.

At hearings throughout the state commissioners were told that while the state's civil union law - the first of its kind in the nation - was a step forward same-sex couples still are not equal.

The committee will present its report to the legislature in the spring, but nothing is expected to be done about it until after next year's election.  That would mean there is no likelihood of a bill before 2009.

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