Same-Sex Marriages

Our State Supreme Court decided in 2008 that Connecticut’s statutory prohibition against same-sex marriage violates the Constitution of Connecticut.

Connecticut was a leading state in legalizing gay marriage. In 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court held that Connecticut’s statutory prohibition against same-sex marriage violated the State Constitution. The Connecticut Supreme Court concluded that gays and lesbians were harmed by not being given the ability to marry. The Court based its opinion on the history of discrimination faced by LGBTQ persons, and the fact that the institution of marriage carries a special “status and significance.” The Connecticut Statutes now define marriage as the legal union of two persons.

In 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

While same-sex divorce cases have the same rights and issues as heterosexual marriages, there are occasional complications related to custody of minor children. Access to legal parentage was vastly expanded in January 2022 by the Connecticut Parentage Act. The Act seeks to ensure gender equality in parentage, creates a new avenue to access legal parentage, provides the means to protect LGBTQ couples and their children, and provides a path for families formed through assisted reproduction. There can also be lingering effects in the division of marital assets or award of alimony in long-term relationships that pre-date the State’s 2008 legalization of gay marriage, where the actual “length of the marriage” is much shorter than it otherwise would have been if that marriage had been permitted prior to 2008.