CNN is reporting...
The (CT) state Senate easily approved a bill that would make Connecticut the first state to recognize civil unions between same-sex couples without being pressured by the courts.
more on the flip
Proponents say the legislation will likely clear the state House, possibly as early as next week. Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has not taken a stand on the bill but has said she supports the concept of civil unions.
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Six of the Senate's 12 Republicans and 21 of the 24 Democrats voted for the bill. Six Republicans and three Democrats voted against it.
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The vote came a day after Kansas became the 18th state to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Thirteen other states passed such prohibitions last year.
Yale law professor William Eskridge, a constitutional scholar active in the support of gay rights issues, notes that ultimately the dispute over gay marriage will be decided by the Supreme Court. And by then, he says, years of gays and lesbians living as partners recognized in MA, VT, CT, and elsewhere will test the warnings of critics that gay marriage is a threat to the institution of marriage.
"Now we have laboratories to observe whether these predictions would come true," Eskridge said. "Now we can wait to see who's right."
Here's to the future. Let us shine a big bright light on this lab!