Imperial Vermont

National | Ripples are crashing into other states from Vermont, where a law in 2000 established a "civil-union" category that is essentially marriage for same-sex partners, complete with spousal rights. | Edward E. Plowman

Ripples are crashing into other states from Vermont, where a law in 2000 established a "civil-union" category that is essentially marriage for same-sex partners, complete with spousal rights.

Now a judge in Nassau County, N.Y., has ruled that a male homosexual can sue a hospital as the spouse of another man who died a year ago of medical complications following an auto accident. The pair had exchanged vows and rings in a civil ceremony in Vermont in late 2000.

The ruling is the first in the nation to treat a same-sex couple joined in a Vermont civil union as a married couple. Judge John P. Dunne said New York law allows a common-law spouse from another state to sue for wrongful death and a same-sex partner joined by Vermont's civil-union law should have the same right. State law, he noted, doesn't define "spouses" as being of the opposite sex.