WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Legislators in Connecticut and Maryland have passed bills providing state protection for relationships between domestic partners, including same-sex relationships.

On April 6, the Connecticut Senate voted 27-9 for a bill that would create civil unions -- legal arrangements that provide many of the same benefits and responsibilities as marriage -- for same-sex couples.

And late on April 11, the Maryland House gave approval to a bill creating a state domestic-partnership registry that includes gay couples. The registry would provide some, but not all, of the benefits of civil unions. Maryland senators had already approved the bill.

Democrats control the legislatures in both states.

The Connecticut vote came only a day after Kansas voters, by a similar margin, approved a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. They joined 13 other states that passed similar amendments to their state charters last year.

Local news reports said observers expected the Connecticut House of Representatives to approve the measure as early as April 13, although it had not yet passed by press time for this story.

Both states have Republican governors who have expressed support for gay rights in the past, and many observers expect them to sign the respective bills. However, neither Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell nor Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich has yet explicitly indicated they would add their signature.

If Rell does sign the bill, Connecticut would become the first state in the union in which legislators approved civil unions or same-sex marriages without pressure from judicial decisions. Rulings by the highest courts in Massachusetts and Vermont in recent years have forced legislators in those states to create such arrangements for same-sex couples.

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