With yesterday’s critical vote in Rhode Island, it is now nearly certain that in 2013, same-sex couples in states across New England will be able to share in the freedom to marry. Share this image to celebrate! http://bit.ly/14SPwrq
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Source: freedomtomarry
President Obama has weighed in on the marriage equality debate in Rhode Island, with a supportive statement similar to the one he made on legislation in his former home state of Illinois.
“While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by the states, he believes all couples should be treated fairly and equally, with dignity and respect,” presidential spokesman Shin Inouye told the Washington Blade. “As he has said, his personal view is that it’s wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so.”
Legislation to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples was introduced last week in Rhode Island’s House and Senate. Votes are expected this month.
A marriage equality bill will be introduced in the Rhode Island legislature Thursday, the Providence Journal reports. State representative Arthur Handy, the bill’s sponsor, said he will need Wednesday to recruit cosponsors, who will include openly gay House speaker Gordon Fox.
Rhode Island legislators have previously abandoned efforts to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples because of insufficient support. The state has had civil unions since 2011, and it recognizes out-of-state same-sex marriages. But it remains the only New England state without marriage equality.
Handy said the bill will address religious groups’ concerns, making clear that no church would have to perform marriages that go against its beliefs. The 2012 election results increased the number of marriage equality supporters in the legislature, helping the bill’s chance of passage. Gov. Lincoln Chafee is also a supporter.
Because they have read the fine print.
The Rhode Island senate passed a new civil unions bill, but gay rights groups like the HRC, Marriage Equality Rhode Island and Think Progress LGBT are asking the governor to veto it. Despite the fact that the bill extends rights to same-sex partners, the HRC is calling it “flawed” because of a religious exemption clause that gives churches the right to deny services to gay couples.
According to the HRC, the bill creates “discriminatory hurdles” for gay partners not necessarily wanting to get married in a church, but for those admitted to a Catholic hospital or employees of a religious university, where partner rights could be denied on the basis of the “religious exemption” clause.
Apparently, not all civil union bills are a step forward. Some are so disoriented that they’ve got us walking backwards without realizing it.
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Advocates of gay marriage delivered a message to Rhode Island state lawmakers who blocked a same-sex marriage bill this year: We’re putting a political bull’s-eye on your back.
Hundreds of Rhode Islanders rallied at the Statehouse Tuesday in favor of gay marriage – despite legislative leaders who say they’ll consider a compromise measure to create civil unions instead. Those at the rally vowed political revenge on those lawmakers who opposed making Rhode Island the sixth state to recognize gay marriage.
“The 2012 election cycle starts now,” Kate Brock, executive director of the group Ocean State Action, told a cheering crowd on the Statehouse steps. “We start recruiting candidates now. We start building our war chests now. Don’t get mad. Get elected.”
Meanwhile, House lawmakers introduced civil union legislation designed to give gay couples the same state rights afforded to married couples. Rep. Peter Petrarca, D-Lincoln, the bill’s sponsor, said he supports gay marriage but that it has no chance of passing this year. He said the rights granted through civil unions are a better than none at all.
“To think we should have a vote (on gay marriage legislation) when we know it’s going to die is just foolish,” he told The Associated Press.
Last week, House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, announced that he was throwing his support behind civil unions because gay marriage legislation couldn’t pass the Senate. Fox is openly gay and his announcement deeply angered many gay marriage advocates. One carried a sign at Tuesday’s rally reading “Fox Hunting Season is Open.”
“It’s time to disband the House and Senate,” said the protester, Gary D’Amario of Cranston. “It’s time to get rid of all of them.”
Those at the rally included religious groups, students, couples gay and straight and a young woman with a vuvuzela. Miss Rhode Island Deborah Saint-Vil attended, as did several lawmakers.
Marriage Equality Rhode Island, the group that organized the rally, dismisses the civil union bill as a hollow compromise.
Rhode Island’s House speaker says legislation extending marriage rights to gay couples is dead for the year.
House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay and is a leading supporter of the gay marriage bill, says that it’s clear the bill won’t overcome opposition in the Senate.
Fox, a Providence Democrat, says he’ll instead sponsor civil union legislation giving same-sex couples the same state rights given to married couples.
The announcement deals a major setback to advocates of gay marriage in the Ocean State. They had called civil unions a poor substitute for full marriage.
Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed’s opposition was seen as a key obstacle to the bill’s passage. In a statement to reporters, she says she supports civil union legislation and is confident it will pass.
by taskforceblog
In a matter of weeks, the future of the pending Rhode Island marriage bill will be decided. Your state legislators have just returned to Providence and on their list of unfinished business is ending marriage discrimination.
It all comes down to these final weeks of the legislative session.
Click here to message your legislators now and be a part of today’s Online Lobby Day.
Join hundreds of pro-equality Rhode Islanders and nearly a dozen local and statewide organizations and contact your legislator on Online Lobby Day for Marriage Equality in Rhode Island.
Marriage equality supporters like you have fought hard for months to get us to this point. This is not the time to quit.
Be part of today’s statewide day of action. Contact your legislators now! Click here.
Join us in sending a clear message to your elected officials – end discrimination against Rhode Island families now.
The Task Force thanks you for joining our friends in Rhode Island and taking action for equality.
Rhode Island State Rep. Gordon Fox, the openly gay speaker, says it’s “premature” to bring the state’s gay marriage bill to a vote next week. Did we mention Fox is one of the co-sponsors of the bill?
After Thursday’s eight-hour hearings on the matter, which saw 137 speak in favor of gays and 60 against, House Judiciary Chairwoman Edith Ajello says she wants to immediate move on the bill. Fox wants to wait, because like after eating an enormous multi-course meal, he needs time to digest.
The Rhode Island house judiciary committee will hear testimony this Wednesday on the marriage equality bill.
A hearing last Wednesday on the bill was delayed because of weather, reports the Associated Press.
Advocates feel more hopeful about passage than in previous years, when former Gov. Don Carcieri and legislative leaders blocked the bill.
“This year, advocates are more optimistic because it has the support of new Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, and Democratic House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay and is a co-sponsor of the bill,” according to the AP.
The Rhode Island house judiciary committee will hold an early-session hearing on the marriage equality bill this Wednesday.
Rhode Island is one of three East Coast states including New York and Maryland that could pass marriage equality this year. Governors in all three states have pledged to sign the bills into law and the conditions in the state legislatures appear favorable.
Rhode Island house speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay, is a co-sponsor of the marriage equality bill.
The Providence Journal reports that the hearing is scheduled for Wednesday after the house finishes the day’s other business.
Days after new Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee called on lawmakers to swiftly legalize gay marriage, a House lawmaker says he’ll introduce a bill to do so.
Rep. Art Handy says he’ll reintroduce legislation on Thursday that died last year. He says he has at least 27 co-sponsors, including House Speaker Gordon Fox, a fellow Democrat, and is more optimistic than in previous years, when Republican Gov. Don Carcieri was in office and opposed such legislation.
Handy says a similar bill will be introduced in the Senate.
Democratic Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed opposes gay marriage, but her spokesman, Greg Pare, said on Thursday she would not block a vote on the legislation, and would allow it to go through the normal committee process.
Lincoln Chafee, the independent governor-elect of Rhode Island, is not going to be swayed by same-sex marriage opponents.
The executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the antigay National Organization for Marriage, Christopher Plante, recently stopped by Chafee’s transition office to discuss the issue of gay marriage. After a discussion with a Chafee aide, Plante was hopeful the new governor would be open to a ballot initiative in which voters would decide on same-sex marriage — Rhode Island is the only New England state other than Maine that doesn’t recognize marriage equality.
But Plante later received a letter from Chafee’s office that reiterated the governor’s belief in marriage equality and stated, “The governor-elect feels that the issue should be addressed as soon as possible by the General Assembly, and does not believe that the question should be decided by a ballot referendum.”
Read the full story here.
For the past 13 years, annual legislative efforts to pass a marriage equality bill in the General Assembly have met with opposition from Rhode Island’s heavily Roman Catholic population — and by the eight-year term of a governor opposed to gay marriage.
Following the recent gubernatorial election of self-proclaimed gay-rights champion Lincoln Chafee ‘75 P’14, the 2011 political stage is finally set for the passage of a same-sex marriage bill in Rhode Island.
Rhoda Perry P’91 — a Democratic member of the Rhode Island Senate and the sponsor of several failed marriage equality bills — said that after more than 10 years of advocacy, she plans to act quickly and decisively to collaborate with the new governor on the issue.
While Perry acknowledged that the positions of some of the newest members of the legislature remain somewhat unclear, she expressed confidence that Rhode Island would soon join its New England neighbors as a state that both recognizes and performs same-sex marriage.
“We are very serious, we are tenacious and we feel that we’ll be victorious,” she said.
Although Rhode Island is the most Catholic state in the union — at 45 percent of its population — Perry expressed little concern that one religious lobby would impede the passage of the bill.
“This state is also a state of independent-minded people,” she said. “Many legislators feel that it is their job to represent all of Rhode Island — and all religions.”
Click the link above to read the full article.
From the Rhode Island paper of record The Providence Journal, showing the shift in Rhode Island to a majority supporting marriage equality.
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