BUSINESS BOOM IN VERMONT, ONCE THE DOOR OPEN FOR SAME SEX COUPLES TO MARRY?

MONTPELIER, Vermont, USA - Bed-and-breakfast owner Jeff Connor was hoping for a boom in business once Vermont opened the door for same-sex couples to marry.

• The law takes effect Tuesday, but he's still waiting. So far, he has only one wedding celebration planned at the 11-unit Grunberg Haus, in Duxbury. It's for Sept. 8.
• Unlike the rush that followed Vermont's adoption of civil unions in 2000, the state's adoption of full marriage rights for same-sex couples hasn't turned it into a gay marriage mecca. And it may not.
• City and town clerks around Vermont have issued only a handful of licenses. The adoption of gay marriage in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Iowa has diluted what was once Vermont's monopoly - and a tourism draw.
• In Manchester, a southern Vermont town whose picturesque old buildings, mountain vistas and upscale shopping make it a wedding destination (there were 101 last year), no gay couples have plunked down the $45 fee for the marriage licenses, which are good for 60 days from the date of issue.
• In Burlington, the state's largest city, only three licenses have been issued for post-Sept. 1 weddings involving gay or lesbian couples. In Rutland, four licenses have been issued, said City Clerk Henry Heck. It's a sharp contrast to 2000.
• After the civil unions law took effect July 1, 2000, there were 1,704 civil unions established in the next six months, including 405 in July alone.
• Out-of-state residents accounted for 78 percent of them with most involving people from New York, Massachusetts and California, according to state vital records. Nearly 69 percent were between female partners.
• The slow start to the same-sex marriage law may also be rooted in timing. When the Legislature adopted the law in April, it set Sept. 1 as the effective date, thereby missing out on the summer wedding season.

Source: The Star Online, AP