Vermont has become the fourth U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage, after a dramatic vote in its legislature Tuesday.
The House voted 100-49 — barely beating the two-thirds level needed — to override Gov. Jim Douglas's veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to tie the knot.
The vote followed a much easier override vote in the state Senate, which early voted 23-5 to rebuff the Republican governor's attempt to kill the bill.
Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples; it now joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa in giving gays the right to marry outright. In those three states, the courts were responsible for instituting the change by ruling on legal challenges.
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