Connecticut Lawmakers Consider Civil Unions Bill
If passed by the majority-Democrat Congress, the state will become the first in the nation to recognize civil unions without being prompted by
A bill legalizing civil unions in Connecticut has passed three House-Senate committees and is on its way to the full Senate as soon as Wednesday. If passed by the majority-Democrat Congress, the state will become the first in the nation to recognize civil unions without being prompted by “activist judges.”
Currently, Vermont is the only state to sanction same-sex civil unions and Massachusetts the only state that offers marriage licenses to homosexual couples. However, in these two states, the actions were prompted by the decisions of court judges.
In Connecticut, lawmakers are spearheading the effort to recognize such unions, presenting a whole new angle on the cultural war that has raged on since Massachusetts legalized homosexual marriage last year.
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"The importance of how this is happening here can't be underestimated," said state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Conn., one of the state's few openly gay legislators and chairman of the judiciary committee, to the Washington Post. "Those who are most adamant about denying these rights say they were being forced on the public by judges. We have elected officials leading the way."
Opponents of the civil union bill say they hope to take the issue to the people.
"Not a single senator ran on this when they were being elected," Brian Brown of the Family Institute of Connecticut, said. "Now they are the ones championing same-sex marriage. The people of this state will hold them responsible."
"The people should decide this for themselves," Brown, whose organization has collected about 90,000 signatures from pro-family advocates, added.
The Connecticut Catholic Conference, meanwhile, is organizing a large rally in the state’s capital this month to prevent the bill from passing.
According to the Conference’s legislative director David W. Reynolds, the civil unions bill will ultimately lead to full blown marriage rights for homosexual couples.
"If any Connecticut legislator thinks this is going to stop the issue, it won't. They will move forward to same-sex marriage with the official title," Reynolds said. "Our biggest concern is that the new law would be creating a separate-but-equal entity, and I have a hard time seeing how a court won't find that unconstitutional.”
Meanwhile, traditional family advocates gained a victory last month when a Connecticut judge ruled that the courts have no authority to hear a request for an annulment of same-sex marriage between couples who received marriage licenses from Massachusetts.
In a case involving two women who entered into marriage in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and later returned to Connecticut, Hartford Superior Court Judge Linda Pearce Prestley found the courts have no jurisdiction to grant their request because the state Legislature has considered such unions to be against public policy.
According to Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, the ruling reflected the right judgment.
“State courts lack jurisdiction to dissolve a same-sex marriage when the state does not recognize the validity of such a union,” said Staver in a statement. “A state court has no authority to dissolve a same-sex union when such a union is void and of no effect under the state law. Marriage in Connecticut remains the union of one man and one woman.”
