Same-sex couples deserve full equality under the law, and that includes the right to marry. For the last decade or so, members of the Rhode Island State Legislature have regularly proposed bills to allow same-sex couples to marry only to see the issue die in committee without coming to a vote.
This week, the State Senate Judiciary Committee is expected, once again, to hear testimony on a bill allowing gay marriage; a House committee may do so next month. These will be empty gestures, once again, if the bills go no further. Proponents should redouble their efforts to propel them to the floor of both houses, where a favorable vote could help raise the issue in the national consciousness.
Rhode Island is bounded by the only two states that recognize gay marriage: Connecticut and Massachusetts. In both states, the courts, not the Legislatures, acknowledged the right of same-sex couples to marry.
The Connecticut and Massachusetts Legislatures approved civil unions before the courts took the extra step of providing gay couples with full rights. Advocacy groups like Marriage Equality of Rhode Island are pushing for full rights rather than the separate-but-equal status of civil unions. They argue, correctly, that anything less is unfair.
California’s courts also supported the marriage rights of gay couples, but voters rescinded the right in November through the infamous Proposition 8, a referendum that is now being challenged in court.
Marriage between same-sex couples faces formidable roadblocks in Rhode Island. It is opposed by three top leaders: a Republican, Gov. Donald Carcieri; and two Democrats, the speaker of the House, William J. Murphy, and the Senate president, M. Teresa Paiva Weed.
State Representative Arthur Handy attracted only four sponsors when he submitted a same-sex marriage bill in 2003. The bill he intends to file later this week is expected to have as many as 30 co-sponsors out of 75 House members.
That is certainly progress, but what Mr. Handy and the state’s gay couples ultimately need most of all is a favorable vote on the House and Senate floors.
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