High Court Grants Marriage Rights For Same-Sex Couples
By MARK SPENCER, ALAINE GRIFFIN, DANIELA ALTIMARI and BILL LEUKHARDT | Courant Staff Writers
1:25 PM EDT, October 10, 2008
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hcu-gaymarriage-1010,0,7812756.storyThe state Supreme Court's 4-3 decision Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry swept through the state with the force of a cultural tidal wave.
While lead plaintiff Beth Kerrigan and her partner -- soon to be wife -- embraced and sobbed after learning of the ruling, opponents vowed to pursue a long and complicated route to change the constitution to ban gay marriage.
The Supreme Court released its historic ruling at 11:30 a.m. Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory and that the state's "understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection."