This weekend, all
50 states participated in protests against the passing
of antigay legislation in California, Arizona, Arkansas, and
Florida. Gays and lesbians in Connecticut protested
too, but they also had reason to celebrate. Last week,
same-sex marriages got under way throughout the state.
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.
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