Three cheers for equality!
http://www.nyblade.com/thelate…
The Connecticut Supreme Court today ruled that denying marriage rights to same-sex couples is unconstitutional.
Connecticut is now poised to become the nation’s third state to allow same-sex marriage, joining California and Massachusetts.
“Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” the ruling says. “To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.
“The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.”
Eight same-sex couples sued, claiming their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process were violated when they were denied marriage licenses.
Check here for updates later today and the Oct. 17 print edition of the paper for full details.
The dam o’ bigotry and social regressiveness is breaking.
Anyone know the likelihood of this being challenged by a state constitutional amendment? I’m guessing it is too late to get anything on the November ballot, but I highly doubt the fight here is over.
While I am thrilled that the gays can get married in Connecticut, I do worry that voters in other states might get back in the mindset of 2004. As we know, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the gays could get married and then we had those big ballot drives in all the swing states and ultimately gave the election to Bush. I do worry that the conservatives that were planning on staying home on November 4 may turn out to the polls.
CT is one of the few states which does not allow citizen petition initiatives. However, the state constitution mandates that an initiative be placed on the ballot every 20 years calling for a state constitutional convention. This year there is a lot of support for the constitutional convention for a variety of reasons. First, Connecticut does not have any process to recall elected officials. This is disturbing to many who have seen many elected officials convicted and imprisoned, including the former governor. Second, there is a big push for property tax caps. This is being oppossed by teacher unions. However, the general public overwhelmingly supports a cap. Finally, those advocating for gay marriage have also been oppossed to the convention, fearing that it could open up the citizen initiate process. While residents support the citizen initiative process, they are less concerned regarding the gay marriage topic. However, if outside groups did push for an amendment to the state Constitution which outlawed gay marriage, then they would likely be successful. In a state with a large Catholic population, voters seem more favorable to civil unions, yet largely oppossed to gay marriage.
If we win the NYS Senate then we’ll win equality in NY. We’ve got the votes in NJ but might wait until 2010 after the governors election. DC will probably pass marriage equality soon as well and Iowa’s Supreme Court will be ruling on marriage equality in late 09 or early ’10.
We could have 7 states where marriage equality is a reality within a year.