Last week I wrote about the historic decision in Sweden when Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament, changed the marital law redefining the marriage as a union between two persons. Yesterday, a similar decision was made in Vermont, a northern state of USA. This means that gay Americans can marry not only in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but also in Vermont. And soon also in Iowa.

Still, I would like to point out why the decision in Vermont is of utmost importance. The decision to re-define marriage was made by the state legislative assambley. No one can grumble about the “activist judges” that legislate from the judicial benches. This legislative decision, simply, disarms all those who claim that such decisions to open the marriage to gay and lesbian individuals have no public legitimacy. Certainly, in the case of Vermont, the decision had support of 100 (against were 49) legislators in the House of Representatives, while, in the Senate, the support was even more overwhelming – 23 were for and 5 were against. If you cannot call this decision legitimate, then, indeed, I do not know how the legitimacy is defined.

My personal feelings about this decision are, of course, positive. When Vermonter politicians will be speaking about the family values and protection of marriage, I suppose, they will really mean that. Clearly, as I see, this is an illustration that USA is “the land of the free and home of the brave”. Only if you are brave enough to stand up for your rights, you will be free.