Carissa Duhamel – Copy Editor
In 2013, many optimistic young open-minded individuals might naively hope that the withholding of rights from certain groups of individuals based on discriminations of race, sex, class, sexuality, religion, or disabilities would be an ancient relic of the past in America. Sadly, those innocent, idealistic beliefs are only aspirational; even today, only 14 of the United States legally recognize same-sex marriages. Thankfully for us, Connecticut is among those 14, but just because the state sanctions homosexual unions legitimate does not mean it reflects the entirety of public opinion.
Connecticut became the third state in the U.S. to recognize same-sex marriage in November of 2008, since making it possible for more than 7,500 gay and lesbian couples to say, “I do” in the same way heterosexual men and women had been doing in the area for the previous 370 years. This legislative change enabled loving couples to refer to each other with such powerfully affectionate words as “husband” and “wife” rather than the sterile “life partner” of civil unions. In addition, same-sex married couples are endowed with the fully binding legal rights of marriage that civil unions lack. Perhaps most importantly, same-sex couples’ relationships are designed a marriage contract the same as any other committed pair, signifying not only a legal right to tax exemptions and social security benefits, but a recognition of the love shared between two people as valid and worthy of acceptance.
Despite the passing of this law, not all people in Connecticut agree that same-sex couples deserve the right to marriage that heterosexual couples have been granted. In 2012, a poll by Quinnipiac University found that 55 percent of Connecticut voters agreed that same-sex marriage should be legal, while an entire third of the voting population still believed it should be illegal, and 12 percent were unsure of their opinions. Though this is a significant increase since the poll was first taken in 2003, when a minority 44 percent of state voters favored same-sex marriage in converse to a 50 percent opposition, this disapproval percentage still seems sizable. Public opinion seems even more conflicted considering same-sex marriages had already been legal for four years in 2012 when only just over half of the state backed the law.
This discord in perspective has been reflected in more than just statistics – in 2011, a play shown to students at Hartford Public High School featuring a kiss between two male football players provoked cries of outrage from the audience and even caused some to exit their seats, which made national news. Such a negative reaction was followed by a more premeditated show of same-sex marriage protest at Wolcott High School, where the administration granted a student the right to wear a t-shirt displaying his disapproval under threat of a lawsuit back by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut.
Though maintained opposition to this law exists even in our youth, many students at Southern Connecticut State University greet the fifth year anniversary of its enactment with both approval and humor. “I think two people should be able to wed if they are truly in love,” said Saige Yarde-Douglas, 21, SCSU senior marketing student, “Why should straight people be the only ones to suffer?”
It seems his opinion reflects the growing view of the state’s population as approval rates of same-sex unions and marriage have steadily increased for the past ten years, moving from initial minority to majority acceptance. Luckily, this trend shows no sign of slowing anytime soon. “I hope in the future this debate will be nothing more than an ancient relic of the past,” Yarde-Douglas said, “That’s how I hope to raise my children.”
With optimism, that sentiment will be shared. After all, as The Beatles sang so eloquently, “All you need is love.”
