The Washington Blade is reporting that the Connecticut State Supreme Court decision became official on Tuesday October, but there will be a slight delay until the appropriate marriage license applications are printed, shipped and received.

The state Department of Public Health is having new marriage applications printed that reflect the change. Instead of putting one name under "bride" and the other under "groom," couples will see two boxes marked "bride/groom/spouse." The new forms are expected to be shipped out to city and town clerks later this week.

And us gays can tie the knot in Connecticut beginning November 10. It's a start . . . .

The Washington Blade reports:

The Human Rights Campaign released its biennial scorecard assigning U.S. lawmakers ratings for their votes and sponsorship of gay-related legislation in the 110th Congress.

• Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential nominee, scored 94 on the scorecard. He lost points for not supporting HRC’s position on the Uniting American Families Act. Obama supports the bill but has not signed on as a co-sponsor. HRC's scoring criteria included points for co-sponsoring the measure.

• Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Republican presidential nominee, scored 0.

• Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), a former contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, scored 95. She also did not support HRC’s position on the Uniting American Families Act. She also supports UAFA but has not signed on as a co-sponsor.

• Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), Obama’s running mate, also scored 95. Like Obama and Clinton, he supports UAFA but has not signed on as a co-sponsor.

The Washington Blade reports:

A courtroom showdown between the Democratic National Committee and its former gay outreach director, Donald Hitchcock, is likely to occur next year. Hitchcock was fired from his DNC post in 2006, shortly after his domestic partner, Paul Yandura, wrote an open letter to gay Democrats urging them to withhold donations to the party because he felt Dean wasn’t doing enough to combat anti-gay state ballot initiatives.

Hitchcock later filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Dean and the DNC alleging, among other things, anti-gay discrimination. The DNC has denied the claims. Final efforts at mediation failed in September and a pretrial conference has been set for Jan. 5. Alan Kabat, an attorney for Hitchcock, said the trial date will not be set until the completion of that conference. He said the actual date would depend on the judge’s calendar as well as the calendars of attorneys for both sides.