A Happy Anniversary to Gay Marriage in Connecticut

by Michael Jones · 2009-11-12 14:45:00 UTC
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Love Makes a FamilyToday is particularly special for 1,700 same-sex couples in the state of Connecticut. That's because these folks have been able to get married thanks to a Connecticut Supreme Court decision 365 days ago that said the state's constitution called for equal rights, including equal marriage rights, for gays and lesbians. Happy Anniversary, gay marriage.

To honor today's one-year anniversary, groups that fought hard for marriage equality in Connecticut, including Love Makes a Family and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, held a rally on the steps of the State Capitol. It's sort of a fitting end for Love Makes a Family, which will be shutting its doors at the end of this month. Guess that means they did such a good job fighting for their cause, that they were able to put themselves out of business.

November is actually an historic month for gay marriage. In addition to this Connecticut anniversary, the state of Massachusetts also holds November as the month where its court case -- Goodridge v. Department of Public Health -- made the state the first in the union to recognize marriage equality.

Still, despite statewide advances in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and three other states (Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire), today is also a day where some Connecticut couples are thinking about the next steps in the fight for equal rights. As Connecticut resident Sharron Emmons told the Middletown Press, advances at the state level can only go so far.

"The federal level is really where it’s all about now — Social security and other privileges,” Emmons said. “There are over 1,000 rights that are afforded heterosexual couples that we don’t get.”

Five states down, forty-five more (and a nation's capital) to go. And when it's all said and done, Connecticut will go down in the history books for being far ahead of the equal rights bandwagon.

(Photo courtesy of Love Makes a Family.)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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