activist, a weblog by George Girton

Civil Wars . . . . . jan 2 2004 — act13.dat

"Civil Wars, A Battle for Gay Marriage" is David Moats' readable account of the legal and democratic process culminating in Howard Dean's signing of the civil unions bill in Vermont. If you are someone who believes that a person's sexual preferences are their own business, then some of the play-by-play legal drama of the process will seem, at first, just a bit forced. Isn't it a foregone conclusion how it will turn out? Not exactly.

Over the course of the book, court and other legal personalities and legislators on both sides make their appearance on the Vermont stage. Vermont citizens and outsiders make their disparate feelings known in a series of hearings, votes, town meetings, newspaper accounts, letters, speeches and conversations.

Bigotry and ignorance come to the fore, to clash with civic-minded religious figures, citizens with compassion, and a politically active population of gay and lesbian families.

Notwithstanding the apparent obvious applicability of the principle of equal treatment under the law, it turns out that in the current political landscape, the gay marriage/civil union issue is is not a simple question that is amenable to a thumbs-up/thumbs-down settlement. With that in mind, it is particularly disappointing to see polls such as the recent New York Times poll which cast the question rather simplistically "do you approve of gay marriage." Does it matter whether one approves or not? Particularly valuable in this regard is the recapitulation in Civil Wars of the legal arguments made, in particular with respect to the removal of historic bans on inter-racial marriage.

The level of personal torment associated with the political maelstrom is epitomized by an op-ed piece which David Moats regrets not running in the Rutland Herald, but which he reproduces in the book. If the following link to Sharon Underwood's Op-Ed Piece does not link through, I'm sure you can find any number of copies, simply by searching on Google for the term "suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs".

U.S. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, in his blurb for the back jacket of Civil Wars, a Battle for Gay Marriage [buy at amazon] . by David Moats, says this about the book:

"In Civil Wars, David Moats tells an inspiring story of political courage that has the excitement of a thriller. The struggle for equality that he describes is a story of sacrifice and triumph that changed Vermont and may well change the nation. It will certainly change the reader."

I found his brief characterisation of the book to be accurate. If you're interested in this topic, or if you just want a good meaty treatment of how the legal and legislative process work in the crucible of a controversial issue, pick up a copy of Civil Wars. size=30 name="sp-q">

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