Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Justice on the March

The Vermont legislature has just voted to override that state's Republican governor's veto of legislation extending the human right of marriage to gay couples.:

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.

The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

It's now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

At the same time, in Nevada, that state's Republican governor reminds us what "family values" means for Republicans and how far they are willing to fight to buttress the institution of marriage by cheating on his wife with two separate women, including a former Playboy bunny:

RENO, Nev. — First lady Dawn Gibbons accuses Gov. Jim Gibbons in divorce papers of having extramarital affairs with a former Playboy magazine model and another woman to whom he sent hundreds of text messages last year. The Republican governor has been untruthful about his "infidelity" with the two women, his estranged wife says in a divorce filing, which was unsealed Monday by a court order in Washoe County Family Court.

The governor has insisted both women were just friends. He filed for divorce last May, citing "incompatibility" with his wife. The couple had been married since 1986.

And, in case you didn't know it, Newt Gingrich, who has been married three times, has just converted to Catholicism, a Christian denomination that strictly prohibits divorce unless you're famous.

1 comment:

Martini said...

To be fair: the Catholic Church will also let you get a divorce if you're very rich.