Vermont voters deliver LGBTQ+ rights victory with constitutional protections

Vermont voters approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday explicitly protecting LGBTQ+ people against discrimination, delivering a victory for civil rights advocates seeking stronger state safeguards against unequal treatment.

The Associated Press called the result just after 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Proposal 4 adds explicit equal protection guarantees covering sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, along with race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability and national origin.

The amendment builds on Vermont’s existing constitutional principles of equality by spelling out protections for groups that have historically faced discrimination. It also preserves the state’s ability to adopt measures intended to provide equal treatment and opportunity for those groups.

The approved text adds a new article to the Constitution. A provision sets Tuesday as the effective date after voters ratify it.

“The federal Constitution represents a floor, not a ceiling, of rights. It shows us the minimum we can do, not the maximum,” state Rep. Barbara Rachelson said when presenting the proposal in May, according to VTDigger. “Therefore, it’s important that Vermont develop its own jurisprudence regarding equal protection, and not simply rely on the one found in our federal Constitution.”

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The victory follows years of organizing and overwhelming legislative support. The Vermont Senate approved the proposal 29-0 in March, and the House followed in May with a 128-14 vote. Proposed constitutional amendments in Vermont must clear two successive legislatures before going to voters.

The measure reached voters nearly a decade after it was first proposed in the Senate. Supporters argued that explicit state protections had become increasingly urgent amid threats to federal civil rights safeguards and decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority.

“Proposal 4 is about constitutional clarity,” Rev. Mark Hughes, executive director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, told Vermont Public in May. “It’s about ensuring that equal protection under the law is explicit and also that it’s enforceable.”