Connecticut Civil Unions, Part I

Lobbyist, Connecticut Gay Rights Group Split

Betty Gallo, the lobbying voice of the gay rights movement in Connecticut for two decades, has broken with the gay community over its all-or-nothing push for a same-sex marriage law. [...]

Word of Gallo’s decision to drop Love Makes A Family, a group she helped found, from her stable of progressive clients circulated among state lawmakers Tuesday, the eve of a judiciary committee vote on civil unions for same-sex couples. [...]

“Without a doubt, she is the most respected ‘white hat’ lobbyist, meaning a lobbyist who only pushes issues she believes in,” said Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the judiciary committee.

“This is devastating, just devastating. I struggled for two months over how I could do this,” Gallo said, referring to arguing against civil unions. “I just couldn’t do it.”

Lawlor said he and his co-chairman, Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, will attempt to have the judiciary committee today endorse a civil-union bill that would extend marriage rights to gay couples in nearly every aspect but name.

He applauded Gallo’s decision to drop Love Makes A Family.

“Good for Betty - and too bad for Love Makes A Family,” Lawlor said.

“I was very surprised that Love Makes A Family, at the urging of some national groups, took the position of marriage or nothing. That’s a big mistake. My advice was to say you are for marriage, say civil unions aren’t good enough, but stop there.” [...]

“We respect her,” Stanback said. “We are grateful for all the help she and her firm have given us over the years.”

Stanback said the state’s gay community has a special responsibility to the national gay rights movement: Connecticut is one of only nine states where same-sex marriage has not been precluded by a constitutional amendment or other legislation.

A court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, coming on the heels of a civil-union law in Vermont, raised the bar, Stanback said.

“Our movement has evolved. The world has changed very quickly on this issue,” she said. “The state of Connecticut does not need to go through civil unions to get to marriage. We think our state is ready for marriage.”

Gallo, after conducting a legislative head count, disagreed.

She said she was able to lobby this year in good conscience for same-sex marriage, but could not abide her client’s direction that she also try to convince lawmakers that a vote for civil unions would be a setback to homosexuals or “a political dead end.”

“I don’t believe that,” Gallo said. “I was saying things to legislators that I didn’t believe for the first time in 28 years.”

A civil-union law would extend significant rights to gay and lesbian couples, and it is possible to achieve that this year, she said.

Gallo said she agreed with Love Makes A Family that the capstone of the gay rights movement in Connecticut should be winning the right to marry.

“I think this legislature will give us marriage - not this year, not next year,” Gallo said. “But, eventually, they will.”

I think it’s too bad that Betty Gallo wasn’t able to see the bigger picture here. I found this article very irritating in many ways. Anne Stanback is right. If civil unions are approved in Connecticut this year, there’s no guarantee that the legislature will be willing to visit this issue anytime in the near future.

And let’s face it, the only reason that the legislature is entertaining the idea of civil unions is not out of any desire to be fair. There is a looming court case over the State of Connecticut. Seven gay couples are suing the state for equal marriage rights. This happened in Massachusetts as well, and the end result was the Supreme Judicial Court issuing a directive to the legislature to change state law to allow gay couples to get married. The Mass. Legislature was unable to do that. They tried to settle for civil unions and asked the court if that would suffice. The court said, in a word, “No.”

The legislators in Connecticut are scared to death that the same will hold true here in Connecticut. So, they are trying to be preemptive in this action. This year, they are probably going to offer civil unions. There are people voting for this who would never have been caught dead voting for this, prior to what happened in Massachusetts. So, let’s cut through the crap and stop saying that they want to do the fair thing.

As I told Representative Lawlor, this civil union bill is unequal treatment and no one, other than the legislators, want this bill. Gay couples don’t want it right alone with the people trying to protect family values, and I never in a million years would have thought that we were on the same side of anything. Of course, we want the bill to fail for entirely different reasons.

They want to “protect marriage”. We want equality. So, if the civil union bill does pass, Kent and I will have no part of it. We will not settle for second best, even though this bill would address many of the legal concerns we have. You don’t negotiation with civil rights. Either you have them, or you don’t. Either you are equal, are your are not equal.

One thing got my ire up. When Representative Mike Lawlor said:

Good for Betty - and too bad for Love Makes A Family.

I was very surprised that Love Makes A Family, at the urging of some national groups, took the position of marriage or nothing. That’s a big mistake. My advice was to say you are for marriage, say civil unions aren’t good enough, but stop there.

It prompted this letter from me.