Civil Unions Approved
Connecticut on Wednesday became the second state to recognize same-sex civil unions, and the first to do so without court pressure.
About an hour after the state Senate sent the legislation to her desk, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a bill that will allow thousands of gay and lesbian couples in Connecticut to be given the same rights and obligations as heterosexual couples, but not an actual marriage license. [...]
"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," Rell said after signing the bill into law.
Good for Rell. She's a Republican who will have to run for office in a little while and she did what was right for a change. If I still lived in CT, I'd say she's earned my vote with this one act.
It's been thirteen years since I lived in Connecticut, but it's where I grew up, and where I feel like I'm "from." Today I wish I could say I still called it home. Instead I live in Michigan. Home of last November's draconian gay-hating initiative that enshrines descrimination into the state constitution, and a Republican legislature passing a law allowing EMTs to refuse to answer a call from a gay household. Ugh. It sometimes feels like Ann Arbor might as well be in Kansas or Alabama...
Certainly I'd like to see Connecticut go for full-on gay marriage instead of civil unions, but if all things are equal but the name, what's the difference? Howard Dean was right on that one...let states do civil rights (and unions) and churches do marriage.
No comments:
Post a Comment