Love Makes a Family Celebrates Success; Plans to Close at End of Year

Executive Director Anne Stanback to Resign in July

Hartford– Standing with a dozen other Connecticut lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and allied leaders at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Executive Director Anne Stanback announced today that, with marriage equality secure and other LGBT issues now in the forefront, Love Makes a Family will cease operations on December 31st.

“With GLAD’s victory in the Kerrigan Supreme Court decision and with the knowledge that same-sex couples’ right to marry is secure, we can officially close our doors at the end of the year. We want to conclude our work on a high note: celebrating our successes, completing our advocacy work over the next nine months, and sharing our organizational resources with others to further empower the Connecticut community for the future,” said Stanback.

Love Makes a Family initially formed in 1999 to pass legislation to allow same-sex couples to legally adopt. Since the enactment of an adoption law in 2000, the organization has led the campaign for marriage equality in Connecticut. “Family recognition issues like marriage and adoption are now secure, but LGBT residents of Connecticut still face discrimination and challenges,” stated Stanback. “Love Makes a Family will encourage our nearly 20,000 supporters to join the efforts of the many other strong Connecticut organizations whose fine work continues.”

Robin McHaelen, Executive Director of True Colors, the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth organization, was one of the organizational leaders who attended today’s press conference. “Love Makes a Family has been a model of lobbying, grassroots advocacy, education and community empowerment over the last decade. Connecticut is a better place to live for all people because of their accomplishments.”

Stanback laid out an the organization’s plan for its remaining nine months:
.Ensuring smooth enactment of the marriage equality law, including codifying the high court’s marriage ruling into state statute this legislative session
.Lobbying the state’s Congressional delegation to support a repeal of DOMA, the federal law that denies married same-sex couples the right to critical federal benefits such as Social Security spousal benefits
.Working with coalition partners to lobby for passage of legislation to prohibit discrimination against transgender individuals
.Ensuring a pro-equality legislature for the future through a continuation of the Love Makes a Family Political Action Committee
.Documenting the successful strategies from the Connecticut marriage equality campaign to share with other states…

Stanback, who will step down as Executive Director on July 1st, called her nearly nine years at Love Makes a Family the highlight of her career. In the short term, she plans to spend time with her wife, Charlotte Kinlock. They were married on February 14, 2009 after 25 years together.

READ THE LETTER TO SUPPORTERS

Connecticut Same-Sex Bill Updates Law

(newsday.com) STEPHANIE REITZ, AP, 3/30/09

HARTFORD, Conn. – A bill updating Connecticut law to conform with a court ruling allowing gay marriages is heading to the state Senate.

The legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted 30-10 Monday to endorse the measure, which was spurred by last year’s state Supreme Court decision giving same-sex couples the right to wed in Connecticut. The bill removes gender references in state marriage laws and transforms existing same-sex civil unions into legally recognized marriages as of October 2010.

It also strips language from a 1991 state anti-discrimination law that says Connecticut does not condone gay marriage and will not set quotas for hiring gay workers or encourage teaching in school about same-sex lifestyles. Some lawmakers consider the language outdated and insulting.

“Put your group in there, put your political ideas in there, put your ethnic background in this language and see how you would like it. It is time to get rid of this language,” said state Sen. Mary Ann Handley, D-Manchester. However, removing those provisions worries gay marriage opponents, who worry the Supreme Court decision _ handed down last October _ will be exploited to liberalize other social policy such as school curricula.

They have vowed to push lawmakers to tighten the wording and to give more people and groups, including state justices of the peace, the legal right to refuse to participate in gay marriages. A compromise provision added Monday lets churches and church-controlled facilities, such as parochial schools, deny use of their facilities for gay marriages if they oppose the practice on religious grounds. Individual clergy members also would have that right.

“I really believe we are in a key time as we consider how we balance the rights of both constituencies we are discussing here today _ those who are gay, and those who have deep faith that doesn’t agree with same-sex marriage,” said state Rep. Bruce Morris, D-Norwalk.

The bill now heads to the state Senate but would also need House approval before taking effect.

Only Connecticut and Massachusetts have legalized gay marriage, although the unions were legal in California for five months until a state referendum to ban gay marriage passed last fall. Vermont, New Jersey, California, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have laws that either recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships that afford same-sex couples similar rights to marriage. Thirty states have gay marriage bans in their constitutions.

MERI Press Release on CT Supreme Court Victory

PRESS RELEASE
Connecticut Supreme Court Finds in Favor of Same-Sex Marriage
Rhode Island is now an “Island of Inequality” surrounded by states that treat
gay and lesbian citizens equally when it comes to the civil right of marriage.

Cranston – Rhode Island is now surrounded by states that allow same-sex couples access to civil marriage. Left out are gay and lesbian citizens living in the Ocean State.

“Marriage Equality Rhode Island is very excited to see that our gay and lesbian neighbors in Connecticut now have access to all of the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage. We remain saddened for our own gay and lesbian citizens who do not have that civil right here at home,” said Susan Heroux, chairperson of the Marriage Equality Rhode Island Education Fund Board of Directors (MERI).

“Rhode Island has become an island of inequality surrounded by states that treat their gay and lesbian citizens with dignity and respect by affording them an equal right to marry. Marriage is a significant social status and provides security that gay and lesbian Rhode Islanders deserve to have as human beings. It’s time for Rhode Island to catch up to its neighbors in this important civil rights area. We call on Rhode Island’s Legislators and the Governor to change the law to allow us civil marriage and keep Rhode Island on the forefront of civil rights,” she said.

The ruling comes from a suit (Kerrigan & Mock et all v. Connecticut Department of Public Health) filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) on behalf of seven gay and lesbian Connecticut couples who were denied marriage licenses in Madison, CT. Connecticut is the second state in New England—and the third in the United States—to swing open the doors to true equality for lesbian and gay couples.

“Today’s victory fulfills the hopes and dreams of gay and lesbian families to live as full and equal citizens in Connecticut,” says GLAD attorney Bennett Klein. “Marriage is unparalleled in the dignity, respect and protection it gives families.”

Plaintiffs Beth Kerrigan and Jodie Mock expressed their joy at hearing the decision: “We are overjoyed to tell our twin boys that we will be married, just like their friends’ parents. We are profoundly grateful to live in a state which recognizes our equality.”