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On Tuesday, Vermont became the fourth state in the nation to legally recognize same-sex marriages. After the state legislature voted to override the veto of Governor Jim Douglas, marriage licenses for same-sex couples will now be issued in Vermont starting on September 1st of this year. It was the first time in the nation that marriage equality was granted by legislative vote as opposed to a court ruling. Just days before the Vermont gay-marriage victory, gay Iowans also won the right to marry. Iowa’s Supreme Court last Friday unanimously upheld a lower court’s rejection of a law that restricted same-sex couples from marriage rights by defining the institution as solely between a man and a woman. In its decision, the opinion of the court stated that Iowa’s state legislature “has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification.” Despite these new gains in states like Vermont and Iowa, same-sex marriages are still not federally recognized and locally in California same-sex couples continue to await a court decision on Proposition 8 that overturned equal marriage rights.

GUESTS: Beth Robinson, Chair of Vermont Freedom to Marry, Sandy Vopalka, Equality Iowa and The Marriage Project