FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2015
Contact: Mike Kanarick
802.735.7962
Mayor Miro Weinberger shared the following remarks at the Pride Center of Vermont’s celebration this afternoon in City Hall Park:
“I am so happy to welcome everyone to City Hall on this beautiful day to celebrate a momentous event in our nation’s history. Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. We will long remember this day as a significant moment in our lifetimes.
“This landmark decision affirms equal rights for all loving partners who are committing their lives to each other. The people of Burlington, and Vermonters across our state, have much reason to be proud about today’s announcement. Our City and our state have led the way on social justice by pioneering benefits for all domestic partners in City government in the early 1990s, celebrating the first civil union in the country right here in Burlington at the First Congregational Church, right in our City’s downtown, and becoming the first state in the United States of America to legislatively legalize gay marriage.
“I want to thank Kim Fountain and the Pride Center of Vermont for bringing us here to celebrate and share this moment together and to give thanks to all of those who worked so hard to ensure that today would come. Someone who is not here today but is very much on my mind is our City Attorney Eileen Blackwood. Eileen has worked to help make today possible, and we wish we could share this moment with her. Today’s decision is a victory for social justice and equality. It shows that as a nation we can change, and grow, and become stronger. It is a great privilege to share in this moment with you.”
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