(Smith) "Please listen to the results of your vote. Those voting, `Yes,’ 100; those voting, `No,’ 49"
(Host) With those words, Vermont became the fourth state in the nation to legalize marriages between same-sex couples today.
Speaker Shap Smith announced the result of the override vote to a packed House chamber. Supporters immediately erupted into cheers and applause.
Vermont is the first state to enact same-sex marriage without a court ordering it.
And lawmakers did it by overcoming a veto of the bill by Governor Jim Douglas. It was only the seventh time in the state’s history that the Legislature had overridden a veto.
Douglas says he did what he felt was right – but he respects the Legislature’s decision.
(Douglas) "I cast my vote against it and I believe many Vermonters share my view. The process has worked through in a different direction and we’ll now live with that and look to the future and deal with many of the pressing issues affecting Vermonters.”