Crossposted to Vermont's Green Mountain Daily
Per today's Rutland (Vermont) Herald:
When Republican state Sen. Kevin Mullin voted to support same-sex marriage in 2009, some of his supporters in Rutland County vowed to get revenge at the polls this year.
"This isn't about moving on," said Steve Cable, a Rutland resident opposed to same-sex marriage, shortly after the April 2009 vote. "This is about getting even."
Opponents of same-sex marriage had nearly a decade to oppose civil unions, the 2nd class-citizen equivalency unit we received in 2000. The bigots got their retribution the next year, doing major damage to some supporters of civil unions through primary challenges.
This time, not so much so.
Update: when I first posted this, I forgot about this graphic I created years ago. I just uploaded it and included it for posterity
There's something that happens when you make dire predictions and noise about calamity that fail to manifest. You lose your power. You lose your relevancy. You become a joke.
You had your grace period. We gave Vermont time to get comfortable with same sex couples receiving some state recognition. That time is over. No one cares. Everyone's moved on. There are more important things for us all to deal with than whether or not some lesbian couple in the Northeast Kingdom needs your permission before they can marry.
Or, as the Herald reports:
Mullin said there was some opposition to him during the race because of his same-sex marriage vote, although the crowd that tried to unseat him was "very small and not very organized," he said.
The wrong side of history is a very lonely place to be.
update #2: see this post from Adam Bink on NOM's tour. It's awesome.