by Rex Wockner
A Hartford Courant/University of Connecticut poll has found that 53 percent of state residents support the Oct. 10 state Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, and 42 percent don't like it.
Among Democrats, 72 percent support it while, among Republicans, 69 percent oppose it.
The poll of 502 adult residents had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
In a 4-3 decision, the Connecticut justices said denying same-sex couples equal access to marriage violated the state constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.
"Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay people are entitled to marry," the decision said. "To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others."
The ruling is expected to take effect around Nov. 7.
Same-sex marriage also is legal in California, Massachusetts, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain – and will become legal in Norway in January.
There is no residency requirement to get married in the three U.S. states or Canada.
