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elrhiarhodanI am particularly proud to report that Rhode Island took a step on Tuesday toward becoming the 10th state to approve same-sex marriage when a major legislative committee forwarded a marriage bill to the State Senate.
(My father grew up in the Ocean State and my sister has lived there for more than 25 years).
By a vote of 7 to 4, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, while allowing religious leaders who oppose such marriages to refuse to perform them. The landmark vote by the full Senate could come on Wednesday. Gay rights advocates said that they think they have the votes to prevail, all but ensuring adoption of same-sex marriage by the only state in New England that does not already allow it.
“We think that when the vote is called, we can win,” Ray Sullivan, campaign director of Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, said Tuesday afternoon of the imminent Senate vote.
A similar bill passed the House in January by a vote of 51 to 19, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee, a onetime Republican who is now an independent, has strongly supported “marriage equality.”
The Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee failed to support a counterproposal to let the public decide the marriage issue in a referendum, and all five Republican members of the 38-member State Senate declared support for same-sex marriage.
From the New York Times, Gay Marriage Measure Advances in Rhode Island
(My father grew up in the Ocean State and my sister has lived there for more than 25 years).
By a vote of 7 to 4, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, while allowing religious leaders who oppose such marriages to refuse to perform them. The landmark vote by the full Senate could come on Wednesday. Gay rights advocates said that they think they have the votes to prevail, all but ensuring adoption of same-sex marriage by the only state in New England that does not already allow it.
“We think that when the vote is called, we can win,” Ray Sullivan, campaign director of Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, said Tuesday afternoon of the imminent Senate vote.
A similar bill passed the House in January by a vote of 51 to 19, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee, a onetime Republican who is now an independent, has strongly supported “marriage equality.”
The Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee failed to support a counterproposal to let the public decide the marriage issue in a referendum, and all five Republican members of the 38-member State Senate declared support for same-sex marriage.
From the New York Times, Gay Marriage Measure Advances in Rhode Island
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Date: 2013-04-24 01:17 pm (UTC)