( – promoted by odum)

According to today’s Bennington Banner, Arlington Democrat Cynthia Browning’s “no” vote on the same-sex marriage bill

had nothing to do with religion, but rather the fundamental purpose of marriage. “It’s not based on religion. It’s actually based on a view of how our society works … on an anthropological basis,” she said.

Browning needs to do her Anthropology homework.  Anthropologists have thoroughly debunked the notion that “traditional marriage between one man and one woman” is, or necessarily should be, the norm for human societies.  

Here’s the February 26, 2004 statement by the executive board of the American Anthropological Association (the world’s largest Anthropological organization) in response to Bush’s proposal of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage:

The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies.

The Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association strongly opposes a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.

http://www.aaanet.org/issues/p…

There is no evidence that legalizing gay marriage will destabilize or dehumanize society.  However, there is plenty of evidence and ample historical precedent that shows that prejudice and discrimination DO destabilize and dehumanize society.  We’ll all be better off when civil marriage is universally available.

Since Cynthia Browning’s “no” vote was apparently based on a faulty premise, she has every reason to reverse her decision and vote in favor of the override.