Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage

by David Moats

Book Overview

In 2000 Vermont became the first state to grant gay and lesbian couples the right to join in civil unions-a groundbreaking decision that has inspired similar legislation in six states thus far. But it... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 015101017X
• ISBN13: 9780151010172
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A Remarkable Journey

Just a short while ago, Vermont wrestled with an issue that's gripping our country in a maelstrom. The end result, as most of us know, was the formation of the controversial but important recognition of same-sex relationships called "civil unions". What most of us don't know is the inner workings of the Vermont government as it came to deal with this issue, and the ultimate political sacrifice that many people played in order to ensure equal rights for all of its citizens. David Moats, editor of the Rutland Herald, describes in detail, how that all transpired in his book "Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage".Moats approaches the story from a journalistic standpoint as he describes couples who were fighting to get legal recognition of their long term relationships. With the court siding on their side, but giving the problem back to the state legislature, the storm of politics brews quickly and deeply. With the leadership of then governor Howard Dean, we see how the machinations of state government worked to churn out the only viable option at the time, civil unions. While being very a straightforward book, Moats treats the subject matter fairly and with respect. His handling of the gay relationships, and the people stories, is respectful and honorable. He clearly has opinions on gay marriage, and yet, those opinions doesn't shade his view of the events in Vermont. If you don't agree with legal recognition of gay relationships, at least you can appreciate, by reading this book, the intense scrunity and thoughtfulness those Vermont legislators put into forming this landmark bill.Perhaps one day, our own Congress will wrestle with the fact that its denying a group of citizens fair and legal recognition of their relationships based solely on whom they love. If that's the case, Moats' book gives us a sense of hope that fair minded people will come to the correct conclusion; that in our country, built upon espoused principals of fairness and equality, people must be afforded the same legal rights and protections offered to all of its citizens. There simply can be no other choice.

A superbly balanced account

Civil Wars is an exceedingly balanced book about the events creating the first civil union legislation for gays in the state of Vermont. Given, such a divisive subject, author David Moats does not interject his own views per se, except where his own experience adds color to the proceedings. Instead, he richly describes the history of the lawsuit that lead to the state Supreme Court decision, which placed the burden upon the legislature to remedy "the exclusion of same-sex couples from the secular benefits and protections offered married couples."In setting the stage for the events that followed, Moats not only vividly portrays the settings and what transpired in public meetings and both open- and closed-door legislative sessions, but imbues us with a sense of how the majority of the senators and house representatives struggled to do the right thing, often in opposition to their prior beliefs and the constituents in their districts. Given the appalling abuse they took, this took courage.One leaves this book with the impression that regardless of whether one believes that gays should or should not enjoy the same rights as heterosexuals, there are considerable numbers of people out there that don't deserve to be part of the human race, given the disgusting and obscene activities they indulged in, in order to persuade legislators not to pass any kind of pro-gay legislation.

There Are Many Heroes Here

David Moats is the editorial page editor of the RUTLAND HERALD and the winner of a Pulitzer for his editorials in support of same-sex unions. This book grew out of Mr. Moats' interest in the whole gay marriage debate and the events that preceded the passage in Vermont of the historical civil union legislation. In this extremely well-written account, Mr. Moats covers all the major events that set the stage for this kind of history to be made in Vermont, that is, the three couples being brave enough to bring suit, the ruling of the Vermont Supreme Court and the ultimate passage into law of civil unions for gay people. He discusses the Stonewall riots, the murder of Harvey Milk, the AIDS epidemic, gays in the military, the lawsuit brought in Hawaii, the increase of adoptions by gay and lesbian couples, and the Matthew Shephard murder. He says in the prologue: In my view, the Vermont story ranks, not just with the Stonewall riots and the murder of Harvey Milk as landmarks of gay history, but with Birmingham and Selma as landmarks of our growth toward a more complete democracy."Governor Howard Dean showed tremendous courage in signing the civil union bill into law. He conducted himself here as he did when he later ran for the Democratic nomination for president. He was open and frank about doing the right thing. There are many other heroes here, Mr. Moates for starters, who is not gay. Certainly the three couples who brought the lawsuit, their attorneys and other gay people in Vermont were brave beyond measure. There were also many fine and decent people in both houses of state government, who were determined to do the right thing by gay people and in so doing, several of them later lost their seats in the state legislature. Two individuals stand out for me--Bill Lippert, vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Bob Kinsey, a 72 year-old Republican in the House, an elder in the Presbyterian Church where he and his wife had sung in the choir for fifty-two years. Initially he was opposed to any kind of gay marriage or domestic partnership bill but was persuaded to vote for the bill that eventually passed, probably in part because a teepee on his farm that he had built as a warming hut for skaters in the cold Vermont winters mysteriously burned. He believed the fire was caused by arsonists because of his stand on gay rights. "It was the human dimension of the gay marriage bill that touched him. . . He and his wife. . . had learned something about life and love and death. No one was going to instruct him about right and wrong or the disposition of his soul." Mr. Lippert, who is gay, gave an impassioned speech on the House floor that many believed brought his undecided colleagues to his side: "There's something strange about sitting in the midst of a delibertive body that is trying to decide whether I and my fellow gay and lesbian Vermonters should get our rights now. . . Don't tell me about what a committed relationship is and isn't. I've watc

"We began this lawsuit because it was about family."

This book profoundly affected me. This is an absolutely riveting, educational and incisive account of the battle to pass the nation's first civil union laws for gays and lesbians in Vermont. As a writer for the Rutland Herald, Moats writes with a consummate authority on the issue as he transforms his balanced and humane editorials into a book that almost reads like a work of fiction. From the outset we are introduced to the main protagonists who will play a major role in bringing the Vermont laws into being - the young hotshot lawyers who were only too well aware of the kinds of discrimination that gays faced; the young, gay man who went on to be part of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and who had for years, fought for gay rights; and the three same sex couples who requested marriage licenses in their small Vermont towns, where they basically wanted to solidify their relationship and pronounce their love for each other. The book raises many interesting issues: The Vermont Supreme Court refused to go the whole way on gay marriage and left the logistics of the issue largely to the Vermont Legislature in the hopes that it would increase and encourage the democratic process. Instead the legislature was left in a mess, "pulled by numerous crosscurrents: their own religious beliefs, the anger of their constituents and the views of the court." Also, the Freedom to Marry Taskforce that was set up in response to the need for gays to solidify their relationships was bitterly disappointed by the ruling. They were hoping for the court's decision to be full, unequivocal marriage rights. But they felt that for society to accept the fact of gay marriage or domestic partnership, "society would have to address the issue squarely, confronting and overcoming prejudices that stood as obstacles to equal rights." Moats does a good job of placing the fight for civil union laws and gay marriage in the context of the history of the gay rights movement. He outlines the birth of the fledgling movement with the Stonewall riots of the late sixties, he talks about Harvey Milk and his plea, in the seventies, for every gay and lesbian in America to come out, and he also talks about the emergence of fundamentalist Christian movements such as the Moral Majority, who believed that any effort by the state to "recognize the legitimacy of homosexual relationships was a violation of God's word." The book presents the argument that, in general, fundamentalists fear social modernity, and Moats goes into quite a bit of historical depth explaining how this has come about. In the latter part of the twentieth century, sexual freedom and new stresses on the family had put "sex at the center of the battle between religious fundamentalists and the modern world." Moats also describes how the terrible murder of Mathew Shepard galvanized the country, and made the quest to seek legitimacy for same-sex relationships even more urgent. The book also provides an important lesson in how democracy, t

Another Issue Whose Time Has Come?

David Moats is the editorial page editor of the "Rutland Herald" who won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials in support of gay marriage. "Civil Wars," his book on the subject, reads more like a novel in the thriller genre than a nonfictional account of the judicial and legislative battle over same-sex unions which occurred in the state of Vermont in 2000. In that year the "Green Mountain State" became the first state to grant gay and lesbian couples the right to join in civil unions. In the Prologue to his book, Moats asks the question: "How did such a thing happen in Vermont?" The rest of the book is devoted to providing an answer. On Monday, December 20, 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court rendered its decision in a case brought before it over a year previously. It was a controversial case where the Court was being urged to establish that gay and lesbian couples had the right to marry. The opinion issued by the Court, however, was both a win and a loss for the proponents of gay marriage. While recognizing that the issue was secular rather than religious and that denying marriage to gays violated the Common Benefits Clause of the Vermont Constitution, the Court ruled that the final disposition of the matter should rest with the state legislature. In a surprising move, the Court had moved the controversy from the judicial realm to the political arena. As a result a new and even more vigorous conflict would ensue. The narrative that unfolds has all the elements of a good drama: there is joy and sadness, there are high points and lowpoints, there are wins and losses, there are heroes, victims, and the occasional cad, whose behavior at times borders on the incomprehensible. The reader will first meet Beth Robinson, the determined attorney who argued the case before the Supreme Court, and then hear the personal stories of the plaintiffs who were courageous enough to come forward and attach their names to the legal action. The reader will also meet many members of the Vermont legislature, those that supported the move toward recognition of same-sex unions and those that opposed it. Their individual stories add a special and telling ingredient to the narrative as a whole. And, in what must be one of the most stirring parts of the book, the author lets the citizens of Vermont speak for themselves, those in favor of the change and those against it. In my personal opinion, one of the highlights of the book occurs in Chapter Nine. It is really unrelated to the historical events which unfolded during the time the Vermont legislature was dealing with the gay marriage issue, but I think it is an enlightening sidebar to this controversial matter. Sharon Underwood, mother of a gay son, wrote an impassioned opinion piece which appeared in a local newspaper and expressed her anger, as Moats says, "about the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of those who had adopted a moral tone to condemn and attack their neighbors." In her op-ed, Ms. Underwood briefly relates some of