I read in the news this week that a recent poll of college freshmen shows the majority of these students support the right of gays and lesbians to marry.

Fifty-eight percent of the 281,064 freshmen entering 421 four-year colleges and universities said that gay couples should have the right to legal marital status. It is a record high on the issue.

Attitudes are improving in our country with regard to same-sex marriage and equal rights for lesbians and gay men. Unfortunately, most of our elected officials have yet to step forward to support laws intended to eliminate all forms of discrimination against homosexuals.

Despite this disappointing record, there are leaders of our cause, all across the land, and when the history of the lesbian and gay rights movement is written, one state, Vermont, will stand out as the birthplace, and one man, Governor Howard Dean, will stand out as the father, of same-sex marriage equality.

Howard Dean didn't set out to be the Governor who signed a landmark civil unions bill.

He set out simply to represent his state and its citizens in the same manner that he had treated them when he was a family doctor