Conn. GOP Pushing Marriage Inequality

March 9, 2005

HARTFORD, CONN — Connecticut voters would get a chance to cast a ballot on same-sex marriage, under a proposal from the Republican leader of the state Senate.

Minority Leader Louis DeLuca (R-Woodbury) said he wants to have a nonbinding referendum in the fall, to gauge whether the public believes the state Constitution should be amended to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.

It isn't putting anything into law, DeLuca said.

The General Assembly's Judiciary Committee recently advanced a bill that would create a civil union system in the state. The legislation would give homosexual couples many of the same state rights as married heterosexuals, but would not allow them to get a marriage license.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has said she supports the concept of civil unions, but will wait to see what comes out of the House and Senate before deciding whether to sign the legislation.

Gay rights advocates have opposed civil unions, looking for same-sex couples to be able to marry instead. They have said civil unions would write second-class citizenship into state laws.

Brian Brown, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, said Wednesday that even if a nonbinding referendum went forward, his group would continue to fight for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and woman.

If you actually look at the bill, the civil union bill is same-sex marriage by a different name, he said.