The Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force announced on Thursday morning that after 20 years of working to achieve marriage equality, the group is disbanding.
Vermont Freedom to Marry was formed in 1996 when same-sex marriage was not allowed anywhere in the world. Twenty years later, 20 nations, including the U.S., have approved marriage equality.
Vermont helped lead the way to same sex marriage. The 1999 Baker vs. Vermont ruling led to the state’s first-in-the-nation civil union legislation. In 2009, the legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to make Vermont the first state to legislatively approve same-sex marriage.
A key organization in Vermont working towards marriage equality has been Vermont Freedom to Marry. Co-Founder Susan Murray says their intent was to disband when marriage equality was achieved. “The fact that we are able to disband finally is a testament to the work of literally hundreds of people in this state who worked so hard for this for so many years. The effort to convince the majority of Americans throughout this country that marriage equality is the right thing to do took, you know some people might say 20 years is not very long. But if you are a gay and lesbian couple and you’ve been discriminated against, it’s a long time.”
Moose Meadow Lodge owner Willie Docto is also the president of the Vermont Gay Tourism Association. He was surprised to hear the Task Force is disbanding, but says it’s not unexpected. “I think early on there was a lot of skepticism with the issue of trying to get gay marriage rights for gay people. But they were instrumental in getting Vermont to become the first state to have civil unions. To have any kind of legal recognition for same sex couples. And that was quite an achievement. And I think once that happened things started really rolling. I mean with Massachusetts, Canada and other states coming in and then all the legal cases that went up to the Supreme Court. You know I think Vermont and the Freedom to marry Task Force really played a key role.”
Murray acknowledges that while marriage equality has been achieved, discrimination continues and challenges remain. “The issue of equality and the complete acceptance and respect for gay and lesbian people and gay and lesbian couples has not yet been accomplished in this country. But having said that, we were formed as a task force to try to work for marriage equality. And that’s what we’ve done. And now the many people in this organization are likely to be turning their efforts toward broader issues like protecting young people from being bullied in school because they’re gay and working to help older gay and lesbian folks. So there’s still work to be done. But the good news is that the task force for marriage equality in this state has accomplished its goal.”
Vermont Freedom to Marry’s historical archive detailing the 20 years of legislative and legal work has been transferred to Middlebury College Special Collections.
