Connecticut Legislature to Put Same-Sex Unions to a Vote

Lawmakers here will soon take up a bill legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples. The measure would make Connecticut the first state to sanction gay and lesbian unions through legislative action rather than court order.

If enacted, it would extend all the rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, except for the right to obtain a marriage license. The bill passed a key hurdle last month when it was approved 25-13 by the Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee.

In Massachusetts, an order last year from the Supreme Judicial Court made that state the first to legalize same-sex marriage. In Vermont, the civil-union concept was introduced five years ago when the state’s highest court ordered the Legislature to extend the privileges of marriage to same-sex couples.

“In Connecticut, it is a ground-up, grass-roots, legislative-based process. Nobody is twisting our arm,” said state Sen. Andrew J. McDonald, a Democrat who is one of three openly gay state legislators here.

State Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, a Democrat who is the Joint Judiciary Committee chairman, said he was confident that the civil-union bill would pass the state Senate and House of Representatives, possibly within a matter of weeks.

If so, said Lawlor, “This measure will be enacted by the Legislature at the will of the people, and signed into law by a Republican governor.”

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Thursday that although she would need to study the specific language of the civil-union bill, she was “generally comfortable with the concept of legislation to recognize civil unions.”

Opponents of same-sex unions condemned the legislative initiative and vowed to fight the move to recognize gay and lesbian partnerships. They were joined initially in their opposition by a grass-roots organization that had worked for four years to promote legalizing same-sex marriage in Connecticut.

But, in an op-ed article Thursday in the Hartford Courant, the president of that organization, Love Makes a Family, declared that although “a civil union law is not enough,” the group would not try to block the legislation.

“We don’t support it,” Anne Stanback said in an interview. “Our opponents don’t support it because they think it is the same thing as marriage. And we don’t support it because we know it is not the same thing as marriage.”

Indeed, Brian S. Brown, executive director of a group that opposes the issue, the Family Institute of Connecticut, said: “The civil-union question is trying to provide same-sex marriage, but give it a different name. Some voters may be convinced that this is something really different than same-sex marriage. But that is ridiculous. If you are going to run legislation like this, call it what it is. It is same-sex marriage.”

Brown said his group had collected 90,000 signatures on a petition opposing same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Marie T. Hilliard, executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference, which also opposes the civil-union legislation, said her organization expected as many as 15,000 people at a rally next month at the state Capitol to “protect traditional marriage.”

“Any other group that sees their relationship as equivalent to same-sex couples or heterosexual couples can now claim that they do love each other and have created a family -- and can demand the rights of marriage,” she said. “It could be two people who are related, three people, four people. Anyone could redefine marriage.”

She said potential approval of civil unions would put her state at a cultural crossroads: “Connecticut would be the first state without a judicial mandate that would legislate civil unions.”

In November’s elections, 13 states passed constitutional amendments limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

A University of Connecticut poll in April showed the state was almost evenly divided about same-sex marriage. But in the same survey, 74% of respondents said they supported civil unions.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, said Connecticut had “always been one of the places where we thought we could make the most progress legislatively. It is a moderate-progressive state, and it has a long history of passing pro-gay laws. The Legislature there is very used to dealing with these issues, and the electorate is very moderate.”

Foreman stopped short of calling the possibility of civil union in Connecticut a step backward, after marriage for gays and lesbians was approved in next-door Massachusetts.

“Civil union, while an amazing step forward, is not equal to marriage,” he said. “But that is what politics is about. Politics is about making very tough decisions that involve figuring out how much you can get at any given time. Clearly, as painful as it may be, this is all that can be done right now.”

Meanwhile, a lawsuit by a group of same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses is pending before a Connecticut court.