Beginning the week of Nov. 10, Connecticut gay and lesbian couples will be allowed to marry in the state and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has warned justices of the peace against trying to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
Under the civil union law passed in 2005, justices of the peace could refuse to perform ceremonies for same-sex couples. But in a legal opinion issued Wednesday by Blumenthal, it will be illegal to refuse to perform a same-sex ceremony simply because the couple is gay.
The legal opinion was sought by some justices of the peace who oppose same-sex marriage.
"Although no state law requires justices of the peace to marry any particular couple," as public officials they "cannot refuse to perform a marriage for discriminatory reasons," Blumenthal said in a statement.
The opinion has angered at least one justice of the peace.
"For the attorney general to try to force this upon people, it's discrimination in reverse," Norwalk JP Nicholas Kydes told The Stamford Advocate. "It's discrimination against people who view marriage as a bond between and man and a woman."
The Family Institute of Connecticut which is pressing for a Constitutional Convention to amend the state constitution to include among other things a ban on same-sex marriage also criticized Blumenthal.
Institute director Peter Wolfgang said he would encourage justices of the peace who oppose gay marriage to voice their "conscientious objection" and refuse to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.
The Justice of the Peace Association is scheduled to meet on Nov. 15. Association vice president Barbara Jay told The Stamford Advocate she believes only a handful of justices of the peace will refuse to perform the ceremonies.
In his legal opinion, Blumenthal also said that same-sex couples who have had civil unions are not required to dissolve those unions before marrying. He said that the state will continue to grant both same-sex marriages and civil unions under current law, and that Connecticut will recognize both out-of-state civil unions and same-sex marriages.
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