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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Marriage Equality Comes to Rhode Island

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee signs the marriage equality bill on the
steps of the statehouse this afternoon in a special ceremony.  At left with curly hair is openly gay House Speaker Gordon Fox.

Rhode Island today became the tenth state to enact marriage equality when Governor Lincoln Chaffee signed a bill that passed the state senate last week by 24-12, and passed the state house of representatives today by 56-15. Read the Governor's remarks at the signing ceremony here. Marriages will begin there on August 1, making all of New England a land of equal marriage rights. It also boosts to 16%, or about 1 out of 6 Americans, who live in states where same-sex marrige is permitted.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence, Thomas Tobin, responded by issuing a pastoral letter to his flock, telling them that homos are "immoral," same-sex marriages are "objectively sinful," and attending a gay wedding would "harm their relationship with God and cause significant scandal to others." So if you dance at your gay cousin's wedding, you will burn in hell, fucker - just keep that in mind.

Also in the news: yesterday, Colorado civil unions began taking place.

Updated marriage map from the Human Rights Campaign (click to enlarge):
Orange = marriage; gold = broad civil unions/domestic partnerships;
yellow = limited domestic partnership.

2 comments:

Stan said...

New Jersey would be colored orange on the map too if we didn't have this lousy Republican Governor who refuses to sign a marriage equality bill passed by the NJ State Legislature.

Russ Manley said...

I hear ya Stan, but maybe Christie will be the next Jason Collins and come out as a Democrat is what I hope. He and Obama sure seem to have a great bromance going on - and the Repubs have done nothing but trash and criticize him, some didn't want NJ to get any federal dollars after the big storm. So who knows, maybe Christie will wake up one day soon and see the light.

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