Gov. M. Jodi
Rell endorsed the concept of civil unions for same-sex couples Tuesday, adding
to the momentum building behind the gay-rights measure.
"I don't believe
in discrimination of any sort, and I want people to have equal rights and equal
opportunities," Rell said.
The governor said she had not evaluated the
civil-unions bill approved last week by the judiciary committee, but for the
first time she offered unqualified support for the concept.
"The concept
I don't have trouble with," Rell told reporters after a ceremony at the Capitol
for new judges.
Rell has said repeatedly that she is opposed to same-sex
marriage, but until Tuesday she had given mixed signals on civil unions that
would convey to same-sex couples nearly all the rights of marriage.
The
governor, who voted for passage of a gay rights law in 1991 as a state
legislator, initially was considered supportive of civil unions. But a few
months ago Rell questioned the need for such legislation.
Gay rights
advocates welcomed Rell's remarks Tuesday, saying they had assumed she
ultimately would be supportive.
"Gov. Rell voted in '91 to end
discrimination against gay and lesbian citizens in housing, employment and other
areas," said Anne Stanback, president of the gay rights coalition Love Makes a
Family. "It's not surprising to me she wants to continue to provide protections
and rights for all Connecticut citizens."
Despite the state's having a
gay rights law on the books for nearly 14 years, the idea of civil unions for
same-sex couples was considered politically impossible as recently as two years
ago.
The legislature's influential judiciary committee passed the bill
last week on a 25-13 vote. The same panel killed a similar measure in
2003.
"The big picture is that a lot of people, the governor included,
are thinking about this and changing the way they view it," said Rep. Michael P.
Lawlor, D-East Haven, the judiciary co-chairman.
Lawlor said Rell's
statement of support can only help attract undecided lawmakers to the
legislation, which already seemed to be on the way to passage.
"The
prospect of a veto would be a problem," Lawlor said. "The prospect of a
signature is a help."
Rell's position appears to place her in the
mainstream of political opinion in her own state party. All three Republican
members of the Connecticut congressional delegation support civil unions for
same-sex couples.
The most visible opposition to the bill has come from
those within the gay community who saw civil unions as not going far enough.
Love Makes a Family opposed civil unions, saying anything less than a same-sex
marriage bill would be discriminatory.
The coalition still supports gay
marriage, but it decided this week to drop its opposition to civil unions. The
group will lobby for marriage, but its representatives will not try to persuade
lawmakers to oppose civil unions.
Lawlor supports a same-sex marriage
law, but he is pushing the civil-unions bill as the strongest legislation that
can pass the General Assembly this year.
"If that's where the consensus
is right now, that's where the law should be right now," Lawlor said.
Lawlor and the other co-chairman of the judiciary committee, Sen. Andrew
McDonald, D-Stamford, have said that Connecticut's adoption of civil unions
would be a significant victory for the national gay rights movement, despite the
reservations of Love Makes a Family.
Massachusetts is the only state that
permits same-sex marriage, a right that resulted from a court decision last
year. Vermont allows civil unions under legislation passed five years ago - also
under court pressure.
Connecticut would be the first state to allow civil
unions without the threat of court intervention.
