Vermont Marriage License Apps: It’s In the Details

In the version of the marriage bill passed by the VT House and Senate, it says:

The department shall prescribe forms that allow each party to a marriage to be designated “bride,” “groom,” or “spouse,” as he or she chooses, and the application shall be in substantially the following form:

The sample form in the bill does indeed have “Bride/Groom/Spouse” at the top of the form. BUT:

It then asks for “Father’s Name,” ‘Father’s Birthplace” and “Mother’s Birthplace,” “Mother’s Maiden Name.”

Yeah. Right.

What if the person getting married has two mothers or two fathers?

This is the kind of gendered form I’ve been crossing out for years related to my son’s schools and doctors and such.

From the language above, however, it sounds like this might not be the final text of the form. I hope someone in Vermont who is involved with the process makes sure the final form includes all kinds of families, since they’re changing it anyway to add “spouse.”

This is not to take away from the significance of simply getting the marriage equality legislation passed, but while we’re at it, let’s make sure to nail the details, what say?

(On a lighter note, although I’ve been making jokes for some time about celebrating Vermont equality with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, it turns out that Walt Freese, the CEO of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., joined other business leaders to state his company supports marriage equality and to encourage legislators to override the governor’s veto. You can thank them online or phone 802-846-1500 between 9:00 and 5:00 Eastern, Monday through Friday. Ask for Consumer Services.)