Vermont Legalizes Gay Marriage

Free ice cream celebrates Vermont's new law

(NEWSER) - What better way to celebrate gay marriage than free ice cream? Ben & Jerry’s is doing just that in its home state of Vermont, where “Chubby Hubby” will be temporarily renamed “Hubby Hubby” and handed out for free today, the Boston Herald reports. The move has its inevitable opponents, with one activist calling it a “bad idea,” because “they’re just doing it to rub it in that Vermont has legalized gay marriage.” More»

Fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage sees little demand

(NEWSER) - After 17 years together, a couple from upstate New York married at 12:01 this morning—the first same-sex couple to wed in Vermont. Today the Green Mountain State, which gave the US civil unions, becomes the fifth state and fourth in New England to allow gays and lesbians to marry. But as the AP reports, there hasn't been a major rush to the altar; city clerks say that only a handful of licenses have been issued. More»

Federal courts may get involved

(NEWSER) - As of today, gay couples will be welcome to wed in Iowa, regardless of whether they live there. If judges waive the three-day waiting period, some could be married by sundown. But for out-of-staters who are already chartering buses, the legally recognized bliss will be short-lived, the Des Moines Register reports. Iowa has no residency requirement for a marriage license, but none of Iowa’s neighbors will recognize those marriages. More»

Group hopes to change her mind in light of anti-gay harassment

(NEWSER) - Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA contestant who stirred up controversy with her opposition to gay marriage, may soon be having dinner with gays and lesbians from her home state, the San Francisco Bay Times reports. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, said he invited Prejean because “Miss California probably doesn’t realize how hurtful her statements are, especially to LGBT youth.” More»

(NEWSER) - “The time has arrived to place economic reparations for gay and lesbian Americans on the political agenda,” Jacob Appel writes in the Detroit Free Press. Equality under the law is inevitable, if still a few years out; meantime, homosexuals must be compensated for their trouble. “While the financial losses” suffered “as a result of state-sanctioned discrimination may prove challenging to quantify, they are real.” More»