by Eric Marion

February 23, 2009

The State’s Senate Judiciary Committee will meet on February 26 to vote on two key bills relating to same-sex couples. The first bill, introduced by long-standing enemy of gays and lesbians, the homophobic Senator Leo Blais of Coventry, would prohibit same-sex marriages in Rhode Island. Officially labeled Senate Bill No. 0136, the bill is understood to have little chance of passage by the Senate Committee. Under Senate rules, the bill must first be introduced and voted upon in the appropriate committee before a full vote by the Senate

The second bill, Senate Bill No. 0147, would permit same-sex marriages in Rhode Island. Introduced by pro-gay and lesbian Senators Perry, Sosnowski, Pichardo, Miller, and C Levesque, the bill similarly stands little chance of passage to the entire senate. A second bill proposed the same Senators would address the legal quagmire faced by Rhode Island same-sex couples who marry in Massachusetts and subsequently seek to divorce. The bill, Senate Bill No. 0271, would amend the state’s statute by adding the language:

“Regardless of whether the parties would have been eligible to marry in Rhode Island, the parties to any marriage, or other domestic relationship granting substantially similar rights and obligations of marriage, recognized in any state of the United States, possession of the United States, or in any foreign country, may petition for a divorce proceeding in this state so long as the parties meet the jurisdictional requirements of section 15-5-12.”

Two key community groups (in addition to the ACLU) have taken a position on these bills. Marriage Equality Rhode Island has long held that nothing short of legally acknowledged marriage will be acceptable to its membership. Both MERI and the ACLU support the co-introduction of marriage and divorce bills during the current legislative term. LEAD, Lawyers for Equality and Against Discrimination, has taken the position that divorce should be addressed separately from the marriage issue. LEAD holds that the divorce issue can be immediately addressed through the legislature or the courts without reference to same-sex marriage rights.

Divine Providence announced on February 23, 2009 its endorsement of a civil unions compromise in an Editor’s Opinion Article.