Connecticut Marriage Ruling Shifts Focus to California, Prop. 8

While LGBT citizens and supporters were rejoicing at the Connecticut supreme court’s Friday decision to legalize same-sex marriage, others were already weighing what effect the ruling might have on this year’s marriage amendment battles in California, Arizona, and Florida as well as the presidential election.

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, thinks the Connecticut decision is a victory on the path toward “crushing” Proposition 8, a measure that would -- if passed -- eliminate the right to same-sex marriage in California.

“What’s happening in Connecticut just helps show how offensive this backward Proposition 8 is,” Kendell said. “We need to defeat it, once and for all. It’s time for us to see our relationships accorded the same dignity and protection as everybody.”

The decision makes one thing clear, according to the LGBT activist: more and more policy makers, elected officials, and average Americans do not want their gay and lesbian neighbors, coworkers, and family members to be excluded from full equality.

Hunter College political science professor Kenneth Sherrill shared Kendell’s perspective that the ruling would reinforce the California Supreme Court's decision and potentially cause voters to question the wisdom of Prop 8.

“It now becomes easier to think that California [voters] will follow Connecticut’s lead as well as other states,” Sherrill asserted.

Sherrill said the Connecticut decision coming right on the heels of the California decision might indeed be announcing a new trend that other states will follow.

“It’s a brilliant decision and a great positive example for the nation,” he said of the fact that the court found that marriage equality is constitutionally required.

Though the decision constitutes major progress in the quest for equal civil rights for LGBT individuals, Sherrill also noted that a lot of people are still virulently opposed to same-sex marriages. “We have won in a court of law,” he explained, “but we now have to win public opinion, and public opinion seems even harder because it’s not rationally based -- it relies on emotions.”

In fact, several polls in the past couple of weeks have found that the court of public opinion is still wavering on gay marriage. In the wake of a successful ad campaign by opponents of marriage equality, internal polling by Equality California, the organization working to defeat the marriage ban, found that 47% of California voters said they favored the initiative while 43% planned to vote against it.

Sherrill anticipated that the religious right would try to use Connecticut to scare people, but he still concluded it was a net plus for LGBT people. “I believe we’re on stronger footing on using this decision than they are, ” Sherrill said, referring to social conservatives.