« Under Construction | Main | Filibuster Bluster »

ftp aria giovanni

April 20, 2005

Equal Rights in Connecticut

Republican Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut signed a bill earlier today to grant same-sex couples the right to civil unions. The bill was approved by the state legislature last week, by a vote of 26 to 8. Vermont was the first state to guarantee same-sex couples civil unions, followed by Massachusetts' legalization of gay marriage last year, but both of those states were ordered by the courts to do so. With Connecticut's independent legislation, we can only hope that the rest of the country, especially Rell's fellow GOPers, will soon follow.

Posted by Maura Spiegelman at April 20, 2005 10:33 PM

Comments

This is a really great new summary-- but what do you think about it? Do you think that the signing of this bill will have any ripple effect in light of the last general elections?

Posted by: Gabrielle Thal-Pruzan at April 21, 2005 12:12 AM

I don't think that gay marriage had a large effect in the last election, and with this being April of an off-year, I don't think this will be a terribly salient issue with most voters.

Posted by: Maura Spiegelman at April 21, 2005 07:36 AM

It's really hard to measure the impact in elections, but the area I think this has a lot of impact on is the people who want to amend the Constitution to outlaw gay marriage; states that legalize civil unions (without "activist judges" stepping in) make a strong statement that such an amendment would be a strike against state's rights.

Posted by: liz / pending at April 21, 2005 08:55 PM