Confusion and gays.(same-sex marriages)

NEW YORK, APRIL 15

ROBERT Novak, the columnist and primary exegete of U.S. political thought, began a recent column as follows:

 
   Sen. Trent Lott looked like a supporter 
   of Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambition 
   when the former New York mayor visited 
   Lott's home state of Mississippi 
   recently. But in private, he warned 
   Giuliani about roadblocks in his presidential 
   path. 
 
      Lott, who likes and admires Giuliani, 
   told him that the New Yorker's support 
   for abortion, homosexual rights, and 
   gay marriage are heavy burdens for a 
   Republican to carry nationally. Giuliani 
   protested that he never supported same-sex 
   marriage, only civil unions. Lott 
   advised that in Mississippi, they don't 
   see any difference between gay marriage 
   and civil unions. 

That difference may not amount to anything at all in Mississippi, but it means a great deal in other parts of America, Connecticut serving as laboratory of the week.

Begin by reminding ourselves that Connecticut is one of the left-leaningest states in the Union. Adecade ago the legislators got so apprehensive about any possibility that Roe v. Wade might be repealed or modified that they went so far as to pass what one might call preemptive legislation. The act said that if Roe were repealed or modified, Connecticut would automatically pull from its shelves the freshly enacted contingency law which gave full sanction to abortion. In the spirit of covering all bases, Connecticut might pass a law saying that in the event the 13th Amendment is repealed, it will nevertheless continue to prohibit slavery.

What caught the eye last week was a bill in Hartford to okay civil unions between gays, temporized by an amendment to that bill which ordained that "marriages" would continue to be understood as unions between a man and a woman. This is a difference that apparently isn't noticed in Mississippi.

It was noticed by the legislators in Hartford, and conflicting understandings of its ...