Analysis

Vermont Legislature overrides Governor's veto, passes same-sex "marriage"

How did it happen? Can this juggernaut be stopped?

April 8, 2009

This week the Vermont Legislature swiftly overrode the Governor's veto of the same-sex "marriage" bill the day before, and passed it into law. Frankly, we didn't think they could get the votes so quickly, but they did. The vote was 23-5 in the Senate and 100-49 in the House. It took a lot of people by surprise.

The veto override won by one vote in the House. In the end, it was one freshman Democrat who switched his vote at the last minute. (Like Rep. Angelo Puppulo did here!)

Vermont becomes the first state to actually "vote in" homosexual "marriage". It's sort of like being the first country to voluntarily go communist. It seemed pretty far-fetched even in Vermont, but it happened.

Here's how it happened

What a lot of people don't realize is that the guts of that campaign was essentially run out of the offices of the well-funded homosexual lobbies in Boston, particularly MassEquality and Gay Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD). They're the ones who made the pledge to spread "gay marriage" throughout New England - six states by 2012 - and they've raised the money and pulled together the organizational forces to do it.

The Massachusetts gay lobbyists have become extremely good at what they do - exporting revolution, if you will - and Vermont is just over the border. At this point, they've got it down to a science.

Working with local activists, they came in and used the tried and true method of a slick hyper-emotional campaign coupled with intense one-on-one interactions with the legislators, run by a group of lobbyists on site. They also work in the background with the local media. Emotion, civil rights, and more emotion. They focused enormous energy on the political leadership. This strong, heart-tugging, emotional / "civil rights" approach is usually strong enough to overcome the fact that their constituents may not agree. The legislators, not used to this kind of sophisticated tactics (and often not too bright, anyway) mostly never knew what hit them. They got turned into a giant bowl of jelly. They take a vote, and the constituents have no clue what happened. That was the basis of their "marriage" wins here in Massachusetts.

As the Associated Press quoted Vermont pro-family activist Craig Benson:

"The other side had a highly funded, extremely well-oiled machine with all the political leadership except the governor pushing to make this happen. The fact that it came down to this tight a vote is really astounding."

Can this juggernaut be stopped?

They've now got their sights on New Hampshire and Maine. Amd they've already started using the same tactic there. We think it's possible to counteract it and win, but it takes a good plan and good organization.

Unfortunately, it's the same old story, here and across the country. So much of this comes down to money. The pro-family movement is considered lucky if we can raise one-tenth the money the homosexuals have at any given time. Usually it's closer to one-twentieth. Wealthy conservatives are simply not interested in fighting this the way wealthy liberals are. And the few wealthy conservative groups insist on using "soft" tactics that always lose.

Hawaii's key to winning last month lay in their strong mega-churches which were able to raise around $50,000 pretty quickly. It worked. We don't have that here, so we'll have to think of something.