New York Times
April 21, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/nyregion/21civil.html


Connecticut Approves Civil Unions for Gays
By WILLIAM YARDLEY

HARTFORD, April 20 - Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Wednesday signed into law a measure allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, making Connecticut the second state after Vermont to approve such unions and the first to do so without pressure from the courts.

"I think that it certainly bodes well for Connecticut that we didn't have to be ordered to do this," said Mrs. Rell, a Republican, who signed the bill about an hour after the Democratic-controlled Senate approved the measure by a three to one ratio. The House passed the bill last week 85 to 63.

Under the law, which takes effect on Oct. 1, couples in civil unions will essentially have all of the rights and protections the state provides married couples, from tax benefits and insurance coverage to hospital visiting rights to family leave from work.

The law also includes an amendment, added last week, that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Mrs. Rell had encouraged the amendment, though she stopped short of saying whether her support for civil unions depended on it.

"I have said all along that I believe in no discrimination of any kind, and I think that this bill accomplishes that while at the same time preserving the traditional language that a marriage is between a man and a woman," the governor said outside her office after signing the bill.

The relative ease with which civil unions became law in Connecticut contrasts with the trend across the country.

Fourteen states have voted to ban gay marriage since last year. Earlier this month, Kansas voted to ban gay marriage and civil unions.

Yet in New England, Connecticut falls cleanly into a countertrend. Vermont approved civil unions in 2000, and Massachusetts last year began allowing gay couples to marry. Vermont and Massachusetts adopted new policies after courts ruled that gay couples were being discriminated against.

Connecticut also faces a discrimination lawsuit, supported by the same gay activists who pushed lawsuits in Vermont and Massachusetts, but the suit could be years from resolution. And many lawmakers said on Wednesday that their support for civil unions was less a defensive act against a potential court ruling than the obvious next step for a state with a 15-year history of expanding gay rights.

In 1990, the state passed a law that included gay people among those protected under a hate-crimes law. The next year, the state added protections in housing and employment laws. In 2000, the state made it easier for gay couples to adopt children.

"This is a different state in many ways," said Representative Michael P. Lawlor, a Democrat from East Haven, who was the bill's lead supporter in the House, which Democrats control 99 to 52. "I think Democrats and Republicans can disagree about the budget, but when it comes to basic human rights issues, we don't disagree that much. There was more evidence of that today."

Public opinion polls also showed support for civil unions. A poll released this month by Quinnipiac University showed that 56 percent of Connecticut voters supported civil unions and 37 percent were opposed. The poll showed that 53 percent opposed gay marriage and 42 percent supported it.

Some viewed the civil unions bill as a compromise. Earlier this year, the state's most prominent gay marriage activist group, Love Makes a Family, opposed the bill for civil unions, vowing to settle only for marriage.

A longtime lobbyist for gay rights, Betty Gallo, eventually broke from Love Makes a Family, saying she could not oppose increased rights for gay couples.

Loves Makes a Family later said it would end its opposition to the bill, and the measure then moved quickly out of committee to the Senate floor two weeks ago.

"We don't want to overplay the rights versus the status and dignity that come with marriage," said Anne Stanback, the president of Love Makes a Family. "But today we celebrate."

Ms. Gallo said on Wednesday that opposition to civil unions was mostly rooted in wariness of a lifestyle foreign to many people.

She said the bill's passage was brought about partly by the activists' strategy of having gay couples invite lawmakers and others into their homes, where such wariness "goes away when you know people and you go into their houses and have coffee and pastries."

The bill passed on the day that Roman Catholic clergymen in the state, and many parishioners, make their annual visit to the Capitol to lobby for their legislative agenda. This year the agenda included one item reflected in the stickers many wore: "Protect Marriage!"

Peter Wolfgang, a lobbyist and the public policy director for the Family Institute of Connecticut, which opposes civil unions, said his group would make them an issue in next year's election.

He and others said that polls misrepresent voter sentiment and that lawmakers are being deceived by lobbyists who support civil unions.

"This is basically the end of one phase and the beginning of another," Mr. Wolfgang said. "It's all about 2006."