Posted by: Stephanie Hunnell
October 11, 2008
Topic: Same Sex Marriage

Taking its cue from the concurring and dissenting opinion of our own, now retired, Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz in Lewis v. Harris, 188 N.J. 415, 467, the Supreme Court of Connecticut found that ''[b]y excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage, the [s]tate declares that it is legitimate to differentiate between their commitments and the commitments of heterosexual couples. Ultimately, the message is that what same-sex couples have is not as important or as significant as 'real' marriage, that such lesser relationships cannot have the name of marriage.'' Kerrigan, et al. v. Commissioner of Public Health, et al., Advance opinion from the Connecticut Supreme Court, citing Lewis v. Harris, 188 N.J. 415, 467 (2006) (Poritz, C. J., concurring and dissenting); (see also citations from California and Massachusetts omitted).

The Supreme Court agreed "[w]ith the plaintiffs that, despite the legislature's recent establishment of civil unions, the restriction of marriage to opposite sex couples implicates the constitutional rights of gay persons who wish to marry a person of the same sex. Put differently, the civil union law entitles same sex couples to all of the same rights as married couples except one, that is, the freedom to marry, a right that "has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men [and women]" and "fundamental to our very existence and survival." Id. citations omitted.

The Court ruled, therefore, that failing to give same-sex couples the full rights, responsibilities and name of marriage was against the equal protection clause of the state's constitution. In doing so, it ordered same-sex marriage legalized, thus becoming the third state to recognize same-sex marriage.

On October 10, 2008, Connecticut Became the Third State to Recognize Same-sex Marriage.

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