Taxation & Estate Planning

Gay marriage, by legislature, in Vermont

By michael

Someone asked me the other day:  Michael, why are so many of your blog posts about gay marriage?”  “Well”, I replied, “Because tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”

I know, I’m pretty awesome right?!  Well, in truth, I am only that which Thomas Paine made me.

Seriously though, the issue is a huge one for us estate planners.  What we are forced to do now for non-traditional families is burdensome, expensive and oftentimes not guaranteed to work.  Granting a marriage right with gender-neutral language would make our jobs much easier…  Which Vermont did today:

From The Volokh Conspiracy:

Nine years after it became the first state to approve civil unions, Vermont becomes the first state to enact gay marriage legislatively. With just one vote to spare, the Vermont state legislature has overridden the governor’s veto of a gay marriage bill. The state house voted 100-49 and the state senate voted 23-5.

Sec. 3. 15 V.S.A. § 8 is amended to read:

§ 8. MARRIAGE DEFINITION

Marriage is the legally recognized union of one man and one woman two people. Gender-specific terms relating to the marital relationship or familial relationships, including without limitation ?spouse,? ?family,? ?marriage,? ?immediate family,? ?dependent,? ?next of kin,? ?bride,? ?groom,? ?husband,? ?wife,? ?widow,? and ?widower,? shall be construed to be gender-neutral for all purposes throughout the law, whether in the context of statute, administrative or court rule, policy, common law, or any other source of civil law.

This is making the rounds out there in the blogo-netcom…  I’m sure I’m not the first.

Full post as published by The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog on April 07, 2009 (boomark / email).