Connecticut

Two judges in Connecticut recently issued conflicting decisions in lawsuits seeking enforcement of gestational surrogacy agreements between male couples and the surrogates who helped them.

A second parent adoption is a legal procedure that allows a same-sex parent to adopt a partner’s biological or adoptive child without terminating the legal rights of the first parent. States must honor second-parent adoptions from other states.

Second-parent adoption is authorized in California by statute - and where appellate courts have ruled that the state adoption law permits second-parent adoption.

A statute is a law passed by a legislature. An appellate court is about appeals. It has the power to review the judgment of another lower court or tribunal.

Legislators from Connecticut passed a bill in 2005 which created civil unions - legal arrangements that provide some of the same benefits and responsibilities as marriage.

However, the state cannot provide the same federal benefits of marriage due to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which says no state need recognize a marriage between persons of the same sex, even if the marriage is recognized in another state. The Federal Government may not recognize same-sex marriages for any purpose either.

The New York Times Editorial
Published: June 7, 2007

A potentially groundbreaking legal battle over Connecticut’s exclusion of gay people from the state’s marriage law has catapulted the debate over same-sex marriage to a new level.

The Oregon House passed two bills that will allow same-sex couples the same benefits as married couples, and protection against discrimination. Governor Ted Kulongoski plans to sign both.

The first bill would enable same-sex couples to enter into contractual relationships that grant them the same benefits offered to married couples under state law. The bill refers to the relationships as domestic partnerships.