A day after an Arkansas circuit judge ruled that homosexuals could adopt children, the Montana Supreme Court delivered a ruling that would also ensure some rights for homosexual couples. The New York Times' Adam Liptak reports in "Gay Employees' Partners":

Montana's public universities must provide their gay employees with insurance coverage for their domestic partners, the state's Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The majority in the 4-to-3 decision said the decision had nothing to do with the rights of gay couples to marry. But a dissenting judge criticized his colleagues as "radically altering common law marriage in Montana."

Gay rights advocates said the decision was an important victory on the narrower point.

"It is the first time that any state high court has ruled that a state has a constitutional obligation to provide domestic partner health care benefits," said James D. Esseks, the litigation director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights and AIDS Projects, which represented the two lesbian couples who brought the suit challenging the state's policy. "It's a recognition by the Montana Supreme Court that the government can't treat gay people differently on economic issues."

This issue will not continue to be a winner for the GOP; in time, it will become like race for them (though it helps them in some areas, it hurts them in many others).