More and more gay men in Connecticut are contracting syphilis, a life-threatening sexually transmitted disease, according to new statistics from the state Department of Public Health. Forty-five new cases of primary and secondary syphilis in Connecticut residents were reported to the state in 2004 -- more than triple the number of cases reported just four years ago, and 50 percent more than last year. Of those 45 new cases, 34 were gay men, including 12 who live in lower Fairfield County. The disease -- an epidemic a decade ago among poor blacks in Connecticut's larger cities -- is spreading quickly...