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The challenge for future generations will be to define what is most essentially human. The extension of the Common Benefits Clause to acknowledge plaintiffs as Vermonters who seek nothing more, nor less, than legal protection and security for their avowed commitment to an intimate and lasting relationship is simply, when all is said and done, a recognition of our common humanity.
— Supreme Court Appeal, Stan Baker v. State of
Vermont, Nov. 1998
Our mailboxes have been filled with letter after letter about abomination, talking about sinfulness, talking about judgment day coming soon. I'm here to tell you that gay and lesbian people and gay and lesbian couples deserve not only rights, they deserve to be celebrated. Our lives, in the midst of historic prejudice and historic discrimination, are to my view, in some ways, miracles.
— Representative Lippert of Hinesbury, Vt., Journal of the Vermont House of Representatives, March 2000
But I hope you will consider giving more than $50. To elect enough anti-"gay marriage" candidates sufficient to repeal "Civil Union" it is going to take sacrificial giving. Please try to send $100 or more even if it requires giving beyond what you thought possible.
— Reverend David A. Stertzbach, Vermont Defense of Marriage Political Action Committee campaign letter prior to 2000 elections
Members of the Legislature have listened to the public, and what they have heard is complex. As they listened, they heard, among other things, that it is fair and decent to treat all Vermonters with compassion and not to exclude same-sex couples from the benefits that attach to marriage. The House wouldn't have passed the bill it passed if members hadn't been listening to Vermonters who said these things.
— David Moats, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial in The Rutland Herald,
April 14, 2000
Sound Bites from the Civil Union Debate
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