Thursday, April 21, 2005
Oh, no! Now there's activist legislatures, too.
Hooray for Connecticut, where the legislature — you know, the people elected by the people themselves — passed a law yesterday allowing same-sex couples to enter legal civil unions. The Republican governor promptly signed it.
Are civil unions as good as marriage? No. I've come to agree with Jonathan Rauch's conservative argument for legal same-sex marriage — which includes the idea that civil unions are not an acceptable alternative in the end — but I also agree that legislative moves in the right direction are absolutely vital to the long-term prospects for same-sex marriage. Depending on the courts is not enough because, as we've seen over the past year, it fuels popular backlash movements to amend constitutions and strip the judicial branch of its independence. The activist legislators of Connecticut have done a marvelous thing.
("A Gay Rights Milestone," Daniela Altimari, Hartford Courant 4.21.05; "Conn. Approves Gay Civil Unions," Sarah Schweitzer, Boston Globe 4.21.05, reg req'd)
Copyright © 2005 by Philocrites | Posted 21 April 2005 at 8:44 AM
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6 comments:
Jeff Wilson:
April 21, 2005 08:55 AM | Permalink for this comment
I'm so happy to hear this! Makes me proud of my homestate. And I'm glad we didn't have Rowland at the top, he might've made it harder.
Barbara W. Klaser:
April 21, 2005 12:42 PM | Permalink for this comment
Yes, at least it's in the right direction. That's great.
Paul:
April 21, 2005 03:38 PM | Permalink for this comment
Civil Unions? Exactly what is a civil union in a purely legal sense ?
Jaume:
April 22, 2005 07:20 AM | Permalink for this comment
Yesterday the Spanish Congress passed the law allowing homosexual marriage (and I mean marriage, not "civil union", there is a hot debate on words here as well). Any report on that in the US media?
Philocrites:
April 22, 2005 09:21 AM | Permalink for this comment
I saw the New York Times story this morning: "Spanish Parliament Gives Approval to Bill to Legalize Same-Sex Marriages."
Philocrites:
April 25, 2005 07:17 AM | Permalink for this comment
E.J. Graff splashes cold water on the Connecticut civil-unions law, pointing out that it includes a gratuitous denial of the right to marry to same-sex couples -- even though another law had already explicitly barred same-sex couples from marrying. She puts the Connecticut law in the context of other legislative half-steps forward:
("The Connecticut Half-Step," E.J. Graff, Boston Globe 4.24.05, reg req'd)
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