HARTFORD, Conn., April 21 (UPI) -- Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has signed legislation letting same-sex couples enter into civil unions and have nearly all rights granted married couples.
Connecticut is the third state to recognize same-sex unions -- Vermont allows civil unions of same-sex couples and Massachusetts allows them to marry -- but is the first to do so through legislative, rather than judicial, action.
Rell signed the act Wednesday shortly after the state Senate passed the measure on a 26-8 vote. The Connecticut House passed the measure last week, 85-63. The bill goes into effect Oct. 1 and includes an amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford and a gay legislator who was one of the leading supporters of the measure, told the Hartford (Conn.) Courant: "All families can be uplifted when civil rights are extended in our state. The vote we cast today will ... send a wave of hope to many people ... across the country."
Opponents to the measure planned a rally Sunday on the Capitol grounds and promised re-election problems for lawmakers who supported the bill, the Courant reported.
