Why Vermont Matters
Today we begin a series of posts about the importance of Vermont to the goal of a more equal, just, and prosperous society. Because of its size and some other special characteristics, Vermont has always been a different kind of place. And now with rising uncertainty due to COVID, economics, and climate change, it is being seen that way by the broader public.
Not in a self-righteous way - although we can sometimes be that - but in a way that is attractive to people of all kinds.
We walked into a new restaurant in Middlesex, VT this holiday weekend and came face to face with Vermont - and American - history.
The Filling Station is a burger and sushi place off the side of Route 2, 15 minutes outside the state Capitol of Montpelier. Across the street is Camp Meade, the arts and community brainchild of local entrepreneurs and activists. It is also the home of the famous Red Hen Bakery, a family-owned place with the best bread in town, not to mention peach galette. Up the road is the home of Patrick Leahy, now the dean of the U.S. Senate.
Tucked into a corner of the Filling Station sharing a meal with his daughter was the former chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, Jeffrey Amestoy. No one took notice. Amestoy is not a celebrity in Vermont; not a star athlete or famous politician like Bernie Sanders. A state attorney general before serving as Chief Justice, Amestoy is an old fashioned New England Republican, meaning fairly liberal on social issues and restrained as a judge.
But on Dec. 20, 1999, Amestoy authored an opinion that changed Vermont history and ushered in a nationwide debate that changed civil rights laws forever. Amestoy declared that gay and lesbian couples were entitled to the same protections and benefits given to heterosexual married couples.
Other states get more attention for being first on same-sex marriage. But it was Vermont where the Supreme Court found that denying a marriage license to gay couples violated the state constitution. And it was the Vermont legislature that was the first in the nation to legalize marriage for those couples.
Amestoy’s ruling was the first real breakthrough for advocates of what we now call marriage equality. Religious conservatives howled that society would be forever damaged. The Catholic Church in Vermont was especially tone deaf and blind to the future that Amestoy laid out.
But Amestoy had served notice to all of us, including then Governor Howard Dean, that same-sex marriage was coming whether people liked it or not. It took 10 years for the machinery of the courts and government to make it reality. But Amestoy made it inevitable. And as one considers the pace of change in history, it happened very fast.
We take it for granted now. But a quote from Amestoy’s opinion still makes your hair stand on end and makes you proud to be a Vermonter.
He described the extension of benefits to gay and lesbian couples committed to an "intimate and lasting human relationship" as "simply, when all is said and done, a recognition of our common humanity."
The court decided the issue based on the “equal benefits’’ clause in the Vermont Constitution, the state equivalent of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee.
"The laudable governmental goal of promoting a commitment between married couples . . . provides no reasonable basis for denying the legal benefits and protections of marriage to same-sex couples, who are no differently situated with respect to this goal than their opposite-sex counterparts," Amestoy wrote. In 1999, that was big.
Amestoy, being an old fashioned Vermont Republican back then (fairly liberal), declined to order same-sex marriage. Instead he kicked the issue to the Vermont legislature. That set off a 10-year debate over the issue. First came the creation of “civil unions,’’ which gave gay men and women all the rights of marriage without the label. That was a political compromise that recognized that society was not yet ready for full marriage equality.
But 10 years later, in what Amestoy must have seen through his incremental, restrained, liberal Republican lens, the legislature took the next step and explicitly legalized marriage for all.
Other states quickly followed, building the foundation for then Vice President Joe Biden to say he supported marriage for all. That forced President Barack Obama to give up his phony pretense of opposing marriage. And then the U.S. Supreme Court acted in 2015.
It was Amestoy’s opinion - and the work of so many others - that set off the dramatic social and political change that is with us today and makes Vermont one of the friendliest, safest states. The plaintiff’s lawyer in the so-called Baker v. Vermont case - Beth Robinson - is now a Vermont Supreme Court justice. Thousands of gay couples are now married - and just like the rest of us - going through the same trials and tribulations of family life. The president of the Vermont Senate - Becca Balint - is an open lesbian (queer if you prefer the term) and is a serious rising leader in Vermont politics. The CEO of the state employees’ union is gay. So are many other leaders in government, business and the non-profit sector. And few people care.
In a 10-year period, in part because of Amestoy’s opinion, Vermont held an emotional, sometimes divisive debate that divided much of the country. While we are divided today around politics, the issue of same-sex marriage has receded from view. Today, anyone can walk into their town clerk’s office in any town in the country and get a marriage license. The rest is up to them.
And there in the corner of the Filling Station restaurant, is Amestoy, nursing his meal and hanging with his daughter - unnoticed. He lectured at Harvard for years after retiring from the court and wrote a well-received book called Slavish Shore: The Odyssey of Richard Henry Dana Jr. (Harvard University Press, 2015) At 74, he is still active, serving as a special prosecutor in a long-running criminal case.
Amestoy changed Vermont history and set the U.S. on a path to marriage equality for all with a blockbuster opinion issued without little fanfare. And nobody knows or cares that it’s him just hanging in a local pub.
