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Same-Sex Couples Say 'I Do' In Connecticut

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The Associated Press

Published: November 13, 2008

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - Same-sex couples walked joyfully down the aisle Wednesday for the first time in Connecticut, while gay activists planned to march in protests across the country over the vote that took away their right to marry in California.

Carrying red roses and a marriage license, Jody Mock and Elizabeth Kerrigan, who led the lawsuit that that overturned Connecticut's law, exited West Hartford's town hall to the cheers of about 150 people.

"We feel very fortunate to live in the state of Connecticut, where marriage equality is valued, and hopefully other states will also do what is fair," Kerrigan said.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Oct. 10 that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a 2005 civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples. A lower-court judge entered a final order permitting same-sex marriage Wednesday morning.

Gay marriage advocates said they were planning nationwide demonstrations this weekend in more than 175 cities and outside the U.S. Capitol. A Seattle blogger was trying to organize simultaneous protests outside statehouses and city halls in every state Saturday.

In New York City, several hundred protesters planned to march later Wednesday on the Mormon Temple on the Upper West Side. The church had encouraged its members to support the California ban.

"We're not trying to convey an image of persecution; we're not trying to attack any specific group," said Ryan McNeely, an organizer for the Join the Impact protest movement. "The point we need to be making is that we need to bring everybody together and to respect each other, and that hate breeds hate."

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