HARTFORD – A bill that would make Connecticut the second state in the nation to allow same-sex couples to marry passed its first legislative hurdle Thursday.

The Judiciary Committee voted 27-15 to approve the bill, which next goes to the House of Representatives, where its prospects are uncertain.

Two years ago, Connecticut approved civil unions for same-sex couples, granting them all of the state rights and privileges of married couples. But gay rights advocates called on the legislature to take the final step this session and allow same-sex couples to marry.

Massachusetts is the only state to allow same-sex marriage, though several other states offer civil unions or domestic partnerships.

Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, co-chair of the Judiciary Committee and one of a handful of openly gay legislators, said marriage and civil unions are not the same to Connecticut’s same-sex and lesbian couples.

“I suspect Don Imus knows terms matter,” said McDonald, referring to the radio talk show host under fire for racially charged remarks he recently made. “They have consequences to people in their lives, in their thoughts, in their self respect.”

It’s unclear whether the bill will move further in the legislative process this year. Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who signed the civil unions law, reiterated Thursday that she believes marriage is between one man and one woman.

Opponents of same-sex marriage said Connecticut, by passing the civil unions law, has already made sure that same-sex couples are treated equally under state law.

“This bill would not give a couple any rights that they do not already have under the civil union legislation we passed two years ago,” said Rep. T.R. Rowe, R-Trumbull. “The federal government and states that do not recognize civil unions will not recognize marriage same-sex marriages performed in Connecticut.”

Rowe said the legislation is not about civil rights, but an effort to radically redefine a basic institution in society. He said lawmakers should allow voters this fall to decide whether to change the marriage laws in a nonbinding resolution – a proposal that died on a 28-13 vote.

Sen. David Cappiello, R-Danbury, voted for civil unions in 2005. He told fellow lawmakers he’s not ready yet to support same-sex marriage.

“Maybe it’s my upbringing. Maybe it’s my background. I still believe marriage is between one man and one woman,” he said. “I can’t change that, at least not at this time.”

But an emotional Rep. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, said she wants lawmakers to go that next step. The freshman legislator told of how she entered a civil union with her partner in the fall of 2005. Her father, a devoted Catholic, walked her down the aisle and even lit a unity candle at the ceremony.

“My father was moved on this issue because he loved his daughter,” she said.

“He wanted me to be happy and when he comes to my house, he sees a happy family. He thinks of me as married, as much as he thinks of my six siblings as married,” Bye said. “But the broader world does not see me as married.”

Aside from changing the marriage laws to allow same-sex couples to marry, the bill would create a system that transforms existing civil unions to marriages and allows people to get out of a civil union before it becomes a marriage.

SAN JUAN (AP) – A summer cruise for gay and lesbian families organized by talk show host Rosie O’Donnell has cut Bermuda from its planned itinerary because of possible protests by church groups in the British island territory.

O’Donnell’s charter company said it wanted to avoid the type of protests that greeted passengers when one of its cruises stopped in Nassau, Bahamas in 2004.

The tour is scheduled to leave New York in July on a ship owned by Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line. But the charter company, R Family Vacations, said on its Web site that it would replace the Bermuda stop with two other ports of call in Florida.

In the statement, the company said Bermuda’s prime minister had assured them they would be welcome as tourists and they had also received hundreds of supportive e-mails from people who live in the wealthy British enclave.

Still, the company said it could not be certain that there would be no protesters greeting them upon arrival. “We feel that our cruise would be more enjoyable with an alternate itinerary to ports where we know we are welcome by everyone.”

In 2004, about 100 protesters chanting anti-gay slogans met the cruise when it arrived in Nassau, Bahamas with about 1,150 passengers.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Iowa’s Brigham Young University has changed its honor code so that being gay isn’t a violation, but engaging in sexual behavior, whether hetero- or homosexual, remains forbidden.

The school’s old code punished students for any indication they might be gay.

“One’s stated sexual orientation is not an Honor Code issue. However, the Honor Code requires all members of the university community to manifest a strict commitment to the law of chastity,” the new code states.

The honor code is a set of rules students and staff at the school are required to follow.

Students who don’t obey the code can be put on probation and are sometimes suspended. BYU is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which considers homosexuality a sin.

Many students complained the old honor code was too vague. It read in part: “Advocacy of a homosexual lifestyle (whether implied or explicit) or any behaviors that indicate homosexual conduct, including those not sexual in nature, are inappropriate and violate the Honor Code.”

“I think what it does, it better explains our position,” said BYU spokesperson Carri Jenkins.

On Monday, several students praised the administration’s willingness to listen to student concerns.

“With the previous honor code there was a lot of fear attached to it,” said David Hulet, a senior. “(Now) we have clarity and understanding of what is acceptable and what isn’t.”

Nick Literski is a gay man and former BYU student living in Seattle. He is no longer a member of the church.

“What it’s reflecting is there’s a growing disconnect between church position on homosexuality versus what individual members are coming to see,” he said.

“As more and more members of the LDS Church are coming to know individuals who are gay and finding out that they’re human, that these are people just like them, that they’re good people, it becomes difficult for them to demonize homosexuality the way the church positions do.”

MADISON (AP) – The mayor and half the City Council denounced the state’s new ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday by adding a strongly worded statement to their oath of office in the first protest of its kind in the nation.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and 20 City Council members elected April 3 raised their right hands and vowed to uphold the state and federal constitutions and the city charter during a midday ceremony at City Hall.

But then Cieslewicz and 10 council members opted to sign a statement saying they took the oath under protest because the ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions approved by 59 percent of voters in November “besmirches our constitution.”

They vowed to work to minimize the ban’s impact and overturn it in the future.

“I cannot in good conscience take office without noting my strong opposition to the recent amendment that so blatantly discriminates against my fellow Wisconsinites who are gay or lesbian,” Cieslewicz said to applause after being sworn in to a second four-year term.

Gay rights groups have said they believe Madison is the first city to allow elected and appointed officials to add a statement to their oath to protest a same-sex marriage ban.

Dane County, whose board meets at the same building as the council in downtown Madison, will consider whether to follow suit on Thursday.

Cieslewicz said he respected the statewide vote that added two sentences to the constitution declaring that marriage is between one man and one woman and that the state cannot recognize other relationships.

But he said the same process would one day be used to reverse the amendment and “give all of us exactly the same right to marry, raise a family and be full members of our communities.” The mayor is straight and married.

Seventy-six percent of the liberal voters in the state’s second largest city rejected the amendment, but it easily passed across the state nonetheless.

Smarting from the election results, the council agreed in January to let the mayor, city council and hundreds of people who serve on city commissions and boards to add the statement if they wished.

The action came after a gay rights activist resigned from his post on the Equal Opportunity Commission rather than swear to uphold the state constitution.

The oath itself cannot be changed under state law and supporters emphasized the supplemental statement was a symbolic protest.

But the plan drew criticism not only from conservatives who oppose gay marriage but scholars and others who said it was inappropriate to tinker with the oath of office.

The uneasiness was evident even Tuesday when several council members who opposed the ban nonetheless declined to sign the statement.

The most notable refusal was newly elected council member Eli Judge, an openly gay University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore who led a group of students in organizing opposition on campus to the same-sex marriage ban.

Judge said the statement set a dangerous precedent, writing on his blog that conservative cities could one day use the same process to oppose same-sex marriage if it became legal.

In an interview, he said: “I just have personal reservations about adding that to the oath.”

Mike Verveer, who also is openly gay and was elected council president Tuesday, said he pushed for members to privately sign the statement rather than reading it out loud so that those who declined weren’t branded anti-gay bigots.

Verveer, a council member since 1995, said he took the oath “with a heavier heart today” as a result of the ban.

“Because of that, it was some relief to be able to sign the supplemental statement,” he said. “But it’s a personal decision for each one of us.”