2 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE October 24, 2008

www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Connecticut couples to begin vows next week

Hartford, Conn.-The October 10 state Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage will take effect on October 28, and Connecticut will then be the third state allowing such nuptials.

A new poll says 53 percent of Connecticut residents support last week's state Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay and lesbian marriages.

The University of Connecticut surveyed 502 adults over the weekend for the Hart-

ford Courant. The poll says 42 percent of state residents don't agree with the ruling, and it shows Democrats and Republicans differ widely over the issue.

Seventy-two percent of Democrats say they support the court's decision, while 69 percent of Republicans are against it. Fiftytwo percent of independent voters agree with Friday's 4-3 ruling.

The poll's margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Opponents of gay marriage are leading an effort to change the state constitution to allow initiatives, so that they can propose one to ban same-sex marriage.

The "Constitution Convention Campaign," is urging residents to vote yes on November 4 to force the first constitutional convention in the state since 1965. It says it has raised $11,400. The "Connecticut Vote No" coalition has raised nearly $830,000.

If a majority vote yes, a convention appointed by the legislature will consider amendments to the state constitution. Convention advocates want one to allow people to gather enough signatures to bypass the legislature and put issues such as same-sex marriage and term limits to a popular vote. Gov. M. Jodi Rell said that she opposes

same-sex marriage, but wouldn't vote to change the Connecticut Constitution to ban it.

Rell said she supports the constitutional convention and the concept of amending the constitution to allow a limited system of initiative and referendum. But, she said if the question should ever come up, she won't support changing the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

"I would not stop that as a question on there. I simply don't support it," she said. "I don't think that we want to change our constitution to ban same-sex marriage. It's a decision that's been made by the courts. Let's live by it."

State Sen. Michael Lawlor, who chairs the legislature's Judiciary Committee, says he expects the General Assembly to pass a same-sex marriage law next year that codi-

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fies the Supreme Court ruling.

The court was sharply divided. Three of its seven justices issued separate dissenting opinions. One of them argued that civil unions have only been in effect in Connecticut since 2005, and he said it's too soon to know if they are inferior to marriages.

But the court's majority found that civil unions weren't enough to protect the rights of gay and lesbian couples.

"Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay people are entitled to marry," Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote for the majority. "To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others."

The court also found that gays and lesbians are a "suspect class" in terms of civil rights, meaning that laws treating them differently are subjected to the strictest court scrutiny. California's highest court, ruling for same-sex marriage earlier this year, was the first to include gays and lesbians as a "suspect class," along with race and sex.

Three states now allow full marriage for gay and lesbian couples: Connecticut, Massachusetts and California, which will vote November 4 on a constitutional amendment to overturn their court's ruling and reban marriage. Five nations also have full marriage: Canada, Spain, South Africa, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Canada and the three U.S. states have no residency requirement for marriage. V -Associated Press

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and came to Ohio to help organize LGBT voters for the Obama ticket.

The biggest surprise Lang and the folks from Massachusetts had is the intensity of the presidential campaign in Ohio.

"It is good to knock on doors for someone else," said Sciortino, who left his campaign to come to Ohio. "This is very energizing for me."

Brett Thomas flew from San Francisco to Boston to ride the bus to Ohio with his sister Gerry.

"Like Massachusetts, California is a foregone conclusion. There are no ads. There is a sense of urgency here," he said.

"If anything changed today it was me," said Thomas. "Going door to door helped me put a face on people who might be the opposition. This opened my eyes to what they think."

"Partnering of LGBT organizations like this is a great model that needs to be built on," said Sciortino. "This may be a first for something like this."

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