Starting today, same-sex couples will be able to get married across Connecticut. An official order from a judge is expected to come down this morning, one which will allow city and town clerks around the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The fight for the right to marry a same-sex partner has been ongoing for several years now.

Of course, many of the couples have actual weddings planned for later today. In August 2004, eight gay couples from Connecticut challenged what they described as the state’s discrimination of same-sex couples from the right to marry. Even if in July 2006, a Connecticut court ruled against them, the couples that filed the lawsuit also filed an appeal nearly a year later. Lawyers argued before the state supreme court and, on October the 10th, 2008, the state’s highest court ruled in favor of gay marriage, stating that denying gays the right to marry is against the equality and liberty rules in the Connecticut Constitution.

Another state in which same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the state to allow them to get married is California. Unfortunately for them, voters there banned same-sex marriage. For now, gay marriage is allowed only in Connecticut and Massachusetts. However, it’s unclear how many couples will get married in Connecticut, now that they can do this. According to the state public health department, there have been 2,032 civil union licenses issued in Connecticut between October 2005 and July 2008. The Family Institute of Connecticut, a political action group that opposes gay marriage, condemned the high court’s decision as undemocratic. The group’s executive director, Peter Wolfgang, talked about the decision of allowing same-sex weddings: “It must be overturned with patience, determination and fortitude.”

A new chapter in Connecticut history is about to begin. Gay couples still expect a final judgment in the case of authorizing same-sex marriage in the state, a decision that will be taken by a Superior Court judge in New Haven. Once it becomes official, same-sex couples will be free to get marriage licenses.