Connecticut Gets Married 

Amid the roses and balloons, and the tears and cheers of joy, gay men and lesbian couples married in Connecticut last Wednesday -- the first day that same-sex marriages became legal there.

Barbara Levine-Ritterman of New Haven, Conn., and her partner of more than 16 years, Robin, were one of the eight couples who sued the state in 2004 after they were refused marriage licenses.

And so it was especially fitting that they were the first same-sex couple to obtain a marriage license Wednesday morning from New Haven City Hall -- only minutes after superior court judge Jonathan Silbert entered final judgment on the case just a few blocks away across town.

“It made me proud,” Levine-Ritterman said, adding that when she and Robin filed for a civil union three years ago, they were required to stand in a separate line from those who were seeking marriage licenses.

But she said it “felt very different” on Wednesday when the two women stood in the same line as every other couple -- straight or same-gendered.

“I’m proud that Connecticut is my home,” Levine-Ritterman said.

Connecticut became the third state in the nation to legalize marriage equality on October 10 -- joining California and Massachusetts -- after its supreme court ruled that denying gay couples the right to marry violated the state’s constitution.

Earlier this month voters in California passed Proposition 8, amending the state’s constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. The state’s supreme court had ruled in May that denying gay and lesbian couples the right to marry violated the constitution.

Previously, Connecticut only afforded same-sex couples the recognition of civil unions.

But in Kerrigan and Mock et al. v. Connecticut Dept. of Public Health (the department that supervises marriage licensing in Connecticut), Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, in conjunction with a team of Connecticut-based attorneys, argued that the state’s 2005 civil union law failed to provide same-sex couples with the equal protection guaranteed under Connecticut’s constitution.

Ben Klein, the senior GLAD lawyer who argued the marriage case before the court, said usually when final judgment is entered on a decision, it is done with little fanfare and generally handled by the court’s clerks.

But on Wednesday morning, he said, Judge Silbert chose to read aloud and then sign the ruling during an open court hearing -- an event that was attended by all eight plaintiff couples; Connecticut’s attorney general, Richard Blumenthal; and numerous gay marriage supporters and members of the press.