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Rhode Island banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1995 and based on gender identity/expression in 2001. However, Rhode Island does not recognize the relationships of lesbian and gay people except for the purpose of making funeral arrangements.
That may soon change.
A marriage equality bill was introduced this week into both chambers of the Rhode Island legislature.
In the House, Rep. Arthur Handy, D-Cranston introduced his annual bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Rhode Island. The 29 lawmakers [out of 75] co-signing the bill include House Speaker Gordon D. Fox.As she introduced similar legislation in the Senate, Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, said she hoped it would get a hearing and vote early in the legislative session.
A mirror of Handy’s bill, it legalizes “civil marriage” between people of the same gender to marry, while specifying that no religious institution would be required to marry same-sex couples if that would go against their teachings.
Not mollified by the bill’s reiteration of the 1st Amendment right for religious institutions to discriminate against those they don’t wish to conduct marriage ceremonies for, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Roman Catholic Church’s Diocese of Providence has made the usual “we love homos, but…” statement:
As the State of Rhode Island enters into a more intense debate about ‘gay marriage,’ with all the emotions surrounding that issue, I first want to re-affirm that the Catholic Church has nothing but the utmost respect and care for individuals with homosexual orientation. They are children of God and our brothers and sisters. We seek God’s blessings upon them; they deserve the same respect and love afforded to others.At the same time, the push to legalize the marriage of homosexual persons is morally wrong and detrimental to the well-being of our State.
He’s not taking the morally relativistic view that many of his Roman Catholic colleagues have adopted that civil unions are the lesser of two evils. Yet. But just wait. Like his colleagues he’s sure to change his tune on what is morally permissible when the House minority leader is pushes his civil unions “compromise”.
The marriage equality bill has the full support of Governor Chaffee. In his 2011 inaugural address, Gov. Chaffee urged the Assembly to quickly pass marriage equality legislation.
15 Comments
Go Rhode Island…Good News.now the Bad News.
Bill was introduced on ThursdayFor the life of me I cannot fine a link to the text of the bill NOR the list of co-sponsors. I have family ties in RI and would like to contact state legislators and senators. Someone help fine this bill please so I can check out the co-sponsors for thanks and apply pressure for those not on the list. In the most Catholic of all states, there are more than a handful of Democrats who do not support equality.
Thanks in advance.
(PS. Republican majority leader of the RI Senate personally opposes marriage equality.)
(PSS. That reminds me, Chaffee actually used the term marriage equality in his inauguration speech. )
A correction and something about the fight in RIActually LGB got protections in 1996, while T got it in 2001.
That said, the only wildcard in this whole thing is Senate President M. Theresa Paiva-Weed. She makes noises that she opposes marriage equality but on the other hand says that she wouldn’t prevent a vote from taking place.
Here’s something to start withSenate Bill No.2
Act 2
BY Felag
ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO SOLEMNIZATION OF MARRIAGES
{LC157/1}
01/05/2011 Recommended for Immediate Consideration
House Bill No.5001
Act 1
BY Edwards
ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO SOLEMNIZATION OF MARRIAGES
(would allow Lois C. Schuyler to join Brenda J. Bishop and James A. Azar in marriage within the Town of Tiverton, Rhode Island, on or about January 9, 2011)
{LC156/1}
01/05/2011 House read and passed
Here (I think)http://dirac.rilin.state.ri.us…
http://dirac.rilin.state.ri.us…
Well, the above can’t be true.Hopefully, someone will just remove my posts above.
P L E A S E
That’s alright…Those were the only things I could find also.
Must mean the bills are only in committee.
So is this billexpected to pass?
noNo, the LGB bill passed in 1995, as the original post says. I’ll post more info elsewhere in the thread.
more infoUnfortunately, the online versions of bills only list the first five co-sponsors. The full lists of co-sponsors of RI legislation are almost impossible to find. You literally have to go to the Statehouse, go to the committee where the bill is assigned, and ask to see the “signature page.” Hopefully Marriage Equality RI will make the full list of co-sponsors public.
Regarding the PS: the majority leader of the Senate is not a Republican (Republicans are a very small minority in both houses, but that doesn’t mean the Democrats are liberal.) You’re probably thinking of Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, a Democrat, who has indeed stated publicly that she opposes marriage equality. She’s actually not as much of an enemy as that might imply. In fact, her voting record on LGBT issues until now has been perfect (and yes, that includes the LGB and T civil rights bills in 1995 and 2001.) My read on her is that she has taken this position in order to hold together the coalition of senators that keep her in power. The RI Senate has long been a hotbed of power plays with all kinds of behind the scenes intrigue.
In the original post, Lurleen speculated about the bishop changing his tune because of a civil unions compromise from the House minority leader. Neither of those things is going to happen. I doubt that the minority leader will even submit a bill, and if he does, it will go nowhere. He has exactly zero power, as there are ten Republicans out of 75 House members. The bishop will never change his tune and suddenly support civil unions. He’s one of the most conservative bishops ever, and moreover really gets off on the national spotlight. A reporter from the local NPR station wrote a great blog post putting it in perspective and taking the bishop to task for his meddling. What’s interesting is that a lot of the online comments on the articles about the bishop’s stance have been strongly against the bishop (many of them saying he needs to clean up his own house regarding sexual abuse by clergy.) It does feel like the tide has turned. Polls done by Marriage Equality RI consistently show that most Catholics in this state support marriage equality.
The thinking currently is that the vote count looks very good in the House, but the Senate is iffy. Governor Chafee’s public support is a huge game changer. Legislators did not want to take a public vote on this issue when we previously had a governor who would have vetoed it. Also, the legislature has been debating this issue since 1997, so it doesn’t seem like a new thing. Rather, it seems like it’s about damn time that we caught up with the most of the rest of New England. The argument that our state is losing money by people having their weddings in other states is another one that resonates, as our economy is in the toilet. One of the main things is that we are a small state where everyone is two degrees of separation away from everyone else. Everyone here knows someone gay, probably in their own extended family and certainly among their friends. The bishop and NOM can try to demonize us, but it won’t work when they’re talking about people’s cousins, sisters and friends.
If folks want to help, visit the website of Marriage Equality RI for more info.
Thanks for sharingthe details of local knowledge.
Good luck Rhode Island.
Great info!Thanks DubNotDubya for this.
If as you surmise the minority leader doesn’t file a CU bill then I agree that the bishop won’t waver. There’d be no reason for him to.
I love this excerpt from the blog post you link to above.
what the antis will supportI neglected to mention that what the antis will support is legislation calling for a referendum on the issue. That is being put forth in the House by a conservative Democrat, Jon Brien. It’s also dead in the water given that the black, gay House speaker, Gordon Fox, does not want it. He correctly responds to such calls by pointing out that civil rights should never be subject to a popular vote.
Can a referendum or constitutional amendment be forced in RIby a voter-initiated petition? Or does it have to go through the legislature?
no voter initiative hereNo, we don’t have voter initiative in RI (and never will because the powerful unions don’t want it.) So a referendum would have to go through the legislature, and that won’t happen.