I was in New York City this past weekend with friends for a nice vacation, having left on Friday and returning today. As a news junkie, I picked up a few newspapers and turned on CNN a couple times in my hotel room, but heard nothing of this landmark decision from Connecticut on Friday. (Granted, I did spend most of my time simply having fun and seeing the sights, so it's not surprising I missed this story.)
Connecticut now becomes the third American state to allow same sex marriage, following California's court ruling earlier this year and Massachusetts's historic court ruling in 2004.
What a difference four years can make! This issue practically turned the election in favour of George W. Bush in 2004. But this year, it's barely registering. The Connecticut ruling is especially telling because that state had adopted a 'separate, but equal' civil unions law. This Boston Globe editorial nicely dissects why a policy which reserves civil marriage for straights just won't stand up under America's equality guarantees.
I predict several more American states will also experience similar rulings in the years to come. Hopefully they will help convince President Obama to reconsider his current opposition to equal marriage in America. ;-)
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On another note, this is the last day of the Canadian election campaign. Having spent the last month plus immersing myself in Canadian election coverage, it was interesting to head south of the border this weekend where there was almost no mention of our country or its election. I did read a fairly decent article in today's Wall Street Journal which mentioned that 'Canada's Conservatives' were expected to increase seats tomorrow, but probably not enough to form a majority.
I'll post later tonight with my overall thoughts on the Canadian election campaign, how it went for the party leaders as well as my predictions on seat counts.