''5 years later, civil unions still strong''

"BENNINGTON COUNTY -- Karen and Linda Carman-Reid, of Arlington, celebrated July 4, 2000 not only with fireworks but with one of the state's first civil unions after then-Gov. Howard Dean signed Act 91 into law five years ago Tuesday.The act, which became effective July 1, 2000, meant thousands of couples like the Carman-Reids could enter civil unions that provided many of the same legal benefits and protections married couples have. Joyce "Birdie" Wyman, Arlington's town clerk, hosted the Carman-Reid's civil union at her own home in an attempt to give the couple some sanity in a nation that had been particularly polarized about the issue of civil unions.
"At that time, it was such a hullabaloo with all the attention, no one wanted the press out here," she said, pointing through a window to the street outside town hall.
Wyman said 2003 seemed to be a time when people were registering in droves. While she had roughly a dozen people register between 2000 and 2002, in 2003 there were a whopping 27 civil unions.
In that year alone, couples came to Arlington to register from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Arizona, and California.
In the years since Vermont's law took effect, Wyman said she has become somewhat indifferent to civil union paperwork requests, none of which have been from Arlington residents.
"At first, it seemed different," she said. "But now ..."-from the story today in the Bennington Banner.