News

Connecticut''s Supreme Court has ruled that gay couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions through the courts.

The ruling comes just weeks before Californians go to the polls on a historic gay-marriage ballot question, the first time the issue will be put before voters where same-sex couples are legally wed.

The 4-3 ruling is the first time that a state that had willingly offered an alternative to marriage was told by a court that civil unions are not enough to protect the rights of gay couples.

Connecticut was the first state to voluntarily pass laws to affirm civil unions. In the majority opinion, Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote that denying marriage to same-sex couples would create separate standards.