Nothing Less Than Equal

Finally some good news coming out of my home-state of Connecticut (for the bad news – and a primer in white-collar crime – just Google “Governor John Rowland” or “Joe Ganim”): last Wednesday the State Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would establish civil unions.
But the news is not as good as it could be: LGBT and other human rights activists had been pursuing nothing less than marriage. However, civil unions have more support and have a better chance of passing when the bill is voted on early this summer.
Love Makes a Family, the most prominent LGBT rights advocacy group in CT, has been adamant that civil unions are not enough. According to LMAF, civil unions provide only one-third of the rights to same-sex couples that heterosexual couples enjoy.
There might, however, be one more hurdle: Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Rell has spoken in favor of civil rights for same-sex couples but has spoken against same-sex marriage. Bloomberg-ian nonsense, I say. Equality is not separatism and human rights are not making do with table scraps: only marriage will do.
Two state newspapers have also come out in support of same-sex marriage over civil unions: The Norwich Bulletin implored, “Do it right or not at all” and The Hartford Courant argued, “Why should they settle for less?” Although being the only the second state to legalize civil unions is something to be proud of, really, we can do better.
Contributed by Jess Wakeman

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