Revisit Same-Sex Marriage (Hartford Courant editorial)

[struggle4progress]

... To same-sex couples, one word - marriage - can be life-changing. No matter how long they have been together as a family, no matter how many children they have raised, no matter how much they love each other, only in one state, Massachusetts, do they have the choice to marry. Even then, they are denied many of the legal rights and privileges that heterosexual couples enjoy.

The extent of their commitment is not recognized in other states, and most glaringly, by the federal government. Same-sex couples can't file joint federal tax returns or qualify for Social Security benefits at the death of a partner. They can't give tax-free gifts to their mates or even get divorced. Except in Connecticut and Vermont, which recognize civil unions, they can't make medical decisions for each other.

Perhaps most poignantly, they can't give their children the security of knowing that their parents are legally bonded in the same way as children of heterosexual parents.

Connecticut can be proud that it took a step toward ending this discrimination by granting gay and lesbian couples the right to form civil unions, the first state to do so without pressure from the courts. Now, it is time to continue the conversation with a goal of making same-sex marriage a reality ...

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-marriage.artjan21,0,5237550.story?coll=hc-headlines-editorials