HARTFORD, Conn. --Gay and lesbian couples have not been harmed by the state's decision to legalize same-sex civil unions rather than grant them full marriage rights, a state Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.
The plaintiffs plan to appeal the ruling to the state's highest court.
"Civil union and marriage in Connecticut now share the same benefits, protections and responsibilities under law," Judge Patty Jenkins Pittman in New Haven wrote. "The Connecticut Constitution requires that there be equal protection and due process of law, not that there be equivalent nomenclature for such protection and process."
Connecticut became the second state in the nation, after Vermont, to allow civil unions. In 2005, the Democrat-controlled legislature passed, and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law, a bill legalizing civil unions but defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Eight couples sued the state, claiming civil unions are an inferior status and violate their constitutional rights to equal protection, due process and free expression and association. The plaintiffs sought a court injunction compelling the state to grant each couple a marriage license rather than a civil union license, which the judge denied.
Details here from the AP via the Boston Globe.