On Thursday, Republican Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont vetoed House Bill 865, which would have added "gender identity or expression" to the list of protected classes covered under Vermont's non-discrimination statutes.
Yesterday, I posted a diary giving the details of the bill, a list of reasons that Governor Douglas gave for his veto, and a primer on gender identity issues and what it means to be transgendered. Today, I am going to give the details of the House and Senate votes, including the names and contact information for those Democrats, Progressives, and Independents who either voted no on the bill or were absent for the vote, and the Republicans who were absent.
If the idea of a transgendered or transsexual individual makes you uncomfortable, then I implore you, as an open-minded member of the Daily Kos community, to read the above diary. Please take the time to educate yourself and to cut past the conservative dogma that so often prevents us from seeing a person for who she really is.
Bill History
You can find the text of House Bill 865, as passed by the House and Senate, here. In a nutshell, the bill does two things: it gives a fairly standard legal definition (as compared to other states and municipalities) for "gender identity or expression," and then goes on to insert the phrase "gender identity or expression" into the list of protected classes found in each section of the various non-discrimination statutes.
The bill originated in the House as House Bill 478, and its lead sponsor was Representative William J. Lippert, D-Hinesburg. It had twenty-four co-sponsors (in a chamber with 150 members), including two Republicans and one member of the Progressive Party (Vermont's third party). You can see the list of co-sponsors here.
The bill was eventually reintroduced as House Bill 865, passed by the House, amended and passed by the Senate (by voice vote, so no rollcall), and then the amended bill was passed by the House 88-47 and sent to the governor. Governor Douglas vetoed the bill on Thursday, and if the leadership of the Vermont Legislature decides to try to override the veto, they will reconvene on Thursday, June 1 to do so.
A Breakdown of the House Vote
As stated above, there are 150 members of the Vermont House of Representatives. There are 30 members of the Vermont Senate. The Speaker of the House, Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, in general cannot vote unless to break a tie or to vote with the minority when her vote would make the vote a tie, in which case the bill fails. Neither case is relevant to us.
Of the remaining 149 members, 82 are Democrats, 60 are Republicans, six are members of the Progressive Party (a very significant third party in Vermont whose policy positions generally lie to the left of those of the Democratic Party), and one member is independent.
Here is the basic breakdown of the vote by party:
Democratic Party: 72 Yes, 4 No, 6 Absent, 1 Presiding (Symington)
Republican Party: 11 Yes, 43 No, 6 Absent
Progressive Party: 5 Yes, 0 No, 1 Absent
Independent: 0 Yes, 0 No, 1 Absent
The full rollcall is here. As you can see, the bill garnered significant tripartisan support in the House.
Overriding the Veto
In order to override the veto on Thursday, June 1, the bill needs to pass by two-thirds plus one votes in both chambers. This means 101 votes for the bill in the House, and 21 votes in the Senate. At the present moment, if no votes change, we are currently 13 votes below the number of yes votes needed for an override in the House. The deficit in the Senate, if it exists, is unknown, but there are 21 Democratic senators and 9 Republican senators, so the Democrats have a veto-proof majority (assuming no Democratic senator broke ranks). Therefore, we will concentrate on the House in this diary.
The veto override in the House will be hard, but doable. Note that the number of no votes, 47, falls short of the 49 needed (plus one for the Speaker) to make the vote fail. Four of these no votes were Democrats. If every Democratic and Progressive representative votes for the override, plus all eleven Republican representatives who originally voted for the bill, plus the independent representative (who represents Brattleboro, a very liberal part of the state), then we have 100 votes for the override. We would then need only one of the six Republicans absent for the original vote to vote for the bill to override the veto. This is an obtainable goal.
So that the strategy: first, gain the votes of the Democrats, Progressives, and Independent representatives who did not vote for the bill originally, and then gain the vote of at least one of the six absent Republicans.
Action: Letter Writing
The main tool we have to switch the votes of these target representatives is letter writing and, in general, contacting them to tell them why they should support House Bill 865. Remember, this is Vermont, and these representatives have an average of less than 5,000 constituents. A few letters and emails can go a long way under those circumstances.
Tomorrow, I will post a couple of sample letters, but for those of you who are ready and willing to start contacting these representatives now, here is their contact information. Note that I will not be posting phone numbers here, since these are usually home phone numbers (Vermont is a wonderfully small state). If you would like the full contact information for all representatives, however, you can find it here.
Here's the contact information:
Democrats Who Were Absent:
Honorable William N. Aswad, D-Burlington
74 Ridgewood Drive
Burlington, VT 05401
No Email Given
Honorable Harry L. Chen, D-Mendon
7 North Road
Mendon, VT 05701
hchen@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Steven J. Howard, D-Rutland City
41 Washington St.
Rutland, VT 05701
showard@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Kathleen C. Keenan, D-St. Albans City
8 Thorpe Avenue
St. Albans, VT 05478
kkeenan@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Clint Martin, D-Springfield
903 French Meadow Road
Springfield, VT 05156
cmartin@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Carolyn W. Patridge, D-Windham
1612 Old Cheney Road
Windham, VT 05359
cpatridge@leg.state.vt.us
Democrats Who Voted No:
Honorable George R. Allard, D-St. Albans Town
70 French Hill Road
St. Albans, VT 05478
gallard@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Timothy R. Corcoran, D-Bennington
8 Corey Lane
Bennington, VT 05201
tcorcoran@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Richard J. Howrigan, D-Fairfield
P.O. Box 16
Fairfield, VT 05455-0016
No Email Given
Honorable Harry S. Monti, D-Barre City (pronounced like "Barry")
P.O. Box 1107
Barre, VT 05641
No Email Given
Progressives Who Were Absent:
Honorable Dexter Randall, P-Troy
627 Bonneau Road
North Troy, VT 05859
No Email Given
Independents Who Were Absent:
Honorable Daryl L. Pillsbury, I-Brattleboro
141 Belmont Avenue
Brattleboro, VT 05301
dpillsbury@leg.state.vt.us
Republicans Who Were Absent:
Honorable Steven C. Adams, R-Hartland
18 Rutherford Road
Hartland, VT 05408
stevenadams@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Andrew P. Donaghy, R-Poultney
P.O. Box 95
Poultney, VT 05764
adonaghy@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Kevin J. Endres, R-Milton
P.O. Box 568
Milton, VT 05468
kendres@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable William F. Johnson, R-Canaan
3603 RTE 102
Canaan, VT 05903
No Email Given
Honorable Sylvia R. Kennedy, R-Chelsea (pronounced "Chelsee")
31 Upper Village Road
P.O. Box 158
Chelsea, VT 05038
skennedy@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable Thomas F. Koch, R-Barre Town (see pronounciation above)
326 Lowery Road
Barre, VT 05641
tkoch@leg.state.vt.us
And last but not least, if you want to show support for an override, here is the contact information for the Speaker of the House and lead sponsor of the bill:
Honorable Gaye Symington, D-Jericho
Speaker of the House
324 Browns Trace
Jericho, VT 05465
speaker@leg.state.vt.us
Honorable William J. Lippert, D-Hinesburg
2751 Baldwin Road
Hinesburg, VT 05461
wlippert@leg.state.vt.us
I'll be back tomorrow with more information. Stay tuned!