Tag Archives: law

Gay marriage comes to Connecticut

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Today was the first day of homosexual marriage in Connecticut, in case you missed it… the press is having a field day and there are reactions aplenty. An AP report brought us down to New Haven City Hall:

Outside City Hall in New Haven, bubbles and white balloons bounced in the chilly autumn air as well-wishers cheered the marriage of Peg Oliveira and Jennifer Vickery .

Despite the roaring traffic and clicking cameras, “it was surprisingly quiet,” Oliveira said after the brief ceremony. “Everything else dissolved, and it was just the two of us. It was so much more personal and powerful in us committing to one another, and so much less about the people around us.”

According to the state public health department, 2,032 civil union licenses were issued in Connecticut between October 2005 and July 2008.

But there was no comparison between civil unions and marriage for Robin Levine-Ritterman and Barbara Levine-Ritterman, who obtained a civil union in 2005 and were among eight same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry.

“We didn’t do it with pride or joy,” Barbara Levine-Ritterman said of getting the civil-union license. “It felt gritty to be in a separate line.”

On Wednesday, however, she proudly held up the first same-sex marriage license issued in New Haven as about 100 people applauded outside City Hall. She and her betrothed, who held red roses, plan to marry in May.

“It’s thrilling today,” Barbara Levine-Ritterman said. “We are all in one line for one form. Love is love, and the state recognizes it.”

Manchester Town Clerk Joseph Camposeo, president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association, said clerks in the state’s 169 communities were advised by e-mail shortly after 9:30 a.m. that they could start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

The health department had new marriage applications printed that reflect the change. Instead of putting one name under “bride” and the other under “groom,” couples will see two boxes marked “bride/groom/spouse.”

Love is love! I assume that by this Ms. Levine-Ritterman means that as long as two people “love each other” they should be permitted to marry.  We have been brought to this point by the false equations and false dichotomies put forward by a movement which has taken every advantage of society’s lack of moral courage and inability to perform critical thinking.

The result will be mass confusion in our society, particularly among the young – a confusion fostered by their elders, as evidenced by the new boxes marked “bride/groom/spouse.”

Online advertising cleaning up its act

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We applaud Connecticut State Attorney-General Blumenthal for his role in making popular site Craigslist see the light when it comes to advertising for illicit sex.

Craigslist, the classifieds website, said Thursday that it was taking steps to prevent people from posting classified ads for prostitution and other illegal activities after reaching a pact with more than 40 states and U.S. territories.

“It’s profoundly significant as a model to track down and crack down on illicit sex and other illegal activities,” said Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal, who has criticized the site for some of the ads it allows and spearheaded the deal. “Craigslist has been very cooperative about acknowledging the problem and addressing it.”

Read more here.

Proposition 8 and Connecticut

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As mentioned earlier, Connecticut voters refused to approve a Constitutional Convention which could have overturned gay marriage in our State.  California voters, dare I say owing to their greater familiarity with both the style and the substance of the homosexual activist movement, appear to have handed a tremendous victory to pro-family forces across the nations.  Today’s Wall Street Journal says:

Proposition 8, which would establish marriage as a union between a man and a woman, passed with 52.1% of the vote, against 47.9% opposed, with 94.6% of precincts reporting. The approval marks a stunning upset in a $70 million campaign that just weeks ago looked to be running in favor of preserving gay marriage rights.

The passage of Prop 8, as it is known, would be a major victory for religious conservatives seeking to ban gay marriage in other states, and a crippling setback for the gay rights movement nationwide.

Indeed.  But what to do in States such as ours or Massachusetts, in which the right to gay marriage has been enshrined as a matter of State Constitutional law?  When the highest judges in the land, elected by none and accountable to none, can create such a right as God made the world – out of nothing – and the people have no remedy available to them, what can pro-family forces do?

The fact that a “liberal” State like California, known for its large and very influential gay population, has spoken against gay marriage speaks volumes.  As the FIC Blog points out today, some 30 states have already voted to protect marriage as it has been traditionally understood.

And what’s wrong with that?

Constitutional Convention measure is defeated

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Question 1, which called for a Constitutional Convention, was defeated in Tuesday’s election. Pro-family advocates had fixed their hopes on such a Convention, which could have provided a means to overturn the recent Connecticut Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage.

Statistics from the Secretary of the State’s Office [PDF], while still incomplete, showed that the question was being defeated handily.

The Courant admitted late Tuesday night that opponents of the measure had outspent its proponents by an 80-1 margin.

The opportunity to call for a Constitutional Convention is required to be offered to Connecticut voters every 20 years.  This particular chance having gone by the boards, it is now difficult to see what avenues may remain for those seeking to forestall homosexual marriage in Connecticut.