(Occasional item taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)[T]he relatively modest political influence that gay persons possess is insufficient to 
rectify the invidious discrimination to which they have been subjected for so long. Like the political gains that women had made prior to their recognition as a quasi-suspect class, the political advances that gay persons have attained afford them inadequate protection, standing alone, in view of the deep-seated and pernicious nature of the prejudice and antipathy that they continue to face.
--Justice Richard N. Palmer, in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, the judgment, released yesterday, in which the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the equal protection guarantee of the state's Constitution requires that same-sex couples be granted equal marriage rights as opposite-sex couples.
(credit for photo of two plaintiffs)
