The Vermont Conversation with David GoodmanĀ is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues with politicians, activists, artists, changemakers and citizens who are making a difference. Listen below, and subscribe onĀ Apple Podcasts,Ā Google PodcastsĀ orĀ SpotifyĀ to hear more.
On this “Best of The Vermont Conversation,” we rebroadcast an interview from 2015 that traced the roots of the marriage equality revolution. The interview was recorded live in the studios of WDEV Radio. The interview marked the first time that two Vermont marriage equality pioneers ā state Rep. Bill Lippert and former Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy ā discussed their roles in the marriage equality fight.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4, in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges, that same-sex couples could wed throughout the country.
The avalanche that swept America actually began as a snowball high up in the Green Mountains in the late 1990s.
In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in Baker v. Vermont that the Vermont state legislature must craft a law granting all of the rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex couples. In 2000, Vermont legalized civil unions, the most sweeping grant of rights to same-sex couples up to that time.
In 2009, the Vermont state legislature legalized same-sex marriage, making it the first legislature to do so.
On this Vermont Conversation, we discuss Vermontās role in the marriage equality revolution with some of the pioneers of that effort: former Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy, author of the groundbreaking Baker v. Vermont ruling; former state Representative Bill Lippert, who led the fight for passage of civil unions in 2000 and same-sex marriage in 2009; Susan Murray, attorney with Langrock Sperry & Wool, who represented the plaintiffs in Baker v. Vermont along with attorney Beth Robinson (now a Vermont Supreme Court justice); and Stacey Jolles and Nina Beck, a lesbian couple who were one of three same-sex couples who sued the state of Vermont in the late 1990s in Baker v. Vermont, catalyzing the fight for marriage equality in Vermont and the U.S.
Chief Justice Amestoy said in this 2015 interview, “I didn’t expect to see (marriage equality) throughout the United States in my lifetime. … I don’t think it ever crossed my mind that we would reach a point, only six years later, that the United States Supreme Court would echo the analysis that Vermont used in the 1999 decision.”
Plaintiff Nina Beck said, āI feel incredibly proud to have been part of this moment ā¦ (and) that I live in a state that wants to create equality for everyone.
āIām very, very pleased that marriage ā our marriage ā has been recognized everywhere in the United States. It’s an amazing, amazing thing.ā