Progress Continues, Rights Returned

It's been a busy week or two on the marriage rights front, last week the Iowa Supreme Court ok'd gay marriage and this week the Vermont Legislature overrode the Governor's veto and legislated equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.

In the Nation's Capital a preliminary vote on recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states passed unanimously and the possibility of bringing same sex marriage rights legislation up this year has again been a hot topic in the District. Not to be outdone, New York Governor David Paterson announced that he would send a gay marriage bill to the State Legislature this year.

Over at Five Thirty Eight Nate Silver did his number crunching thing and ran out a model showing when the various states would vote to overturn a gay marriage ban (a bit of a double negative that it seems).

Dictionaries, including The American Heritage, Black's Law, Webster's, and the OED, have also gotten in on the act with the definition of marriage including same sex couples in their latest editions. Which may actually have legal implications since waving the dictionary around in court has been a favored tactic of same sex marriage opponents.

At least we're moving in the right direction again.