- R.I. Governor Don Carcieri
Same sex couples living together in Rhode Island may not be recognized, but now at least they can die legally.
Although the state’s capital is the only state capital with a gay mayor, the governor is certainly not sympathetic. Last year, as same sex marriage swept through New England, Governor Don Carcieri said he would opposed the measure in his state. Then, the Rhode Island legislature passed a measure to allow a same sex partner arrange his or her partner’s funeral. Incredibly, the governor vetoed the bill.
He said, “This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue.”
Yesterday, the legislature overrode the veto.
“Now, at the worst time of their lives, people won’t have to fight simply to lay their loved ones to rest,” said Kathy J. Kushnir, executive director of Marriage Equality Rhode Island.
Maybe we should all chip in and mail the Governor one of these hot new products from Google as a form of our appreciation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7SzB58qHI0
I think he’ll love it and get the message real fast !!!
Good for RI.
Onward to equality, Joe Mustich, Justice of the Peace,
Washington, Connecticut, USA.
And civil rights shouldn’t be put up to popular votes in America.
schmuck
As a Rhode Islander, I’ll be relieved when our boneheaded governor leaves office. We have term limits, so he’ll be out after this year’s 2010 elections. He has been an unmitigated complete disaster for our state. He has done nothing but populate his administration with 6-figure jobs for his cronies who lack credentials to do the job. He is an embarrassment.
To top it all off, he is a homophobic bigot who is so afraid of gay people that he can’t even muster the compassion to let them tend to their dead loved ones. Throw in the fact that he is more loyal to Catholic Bishop Tobin than he is to the people of the state. Thank God the General Assembly overrode his mean-spirited veto.
Glen, How does a state like yours end up with a mayor like Cicilline and a governor like Carcieri? Polar opposites. I guess the way we have Annise Parker and Gov. Goodhair here in Texas. But seriously, Providence is such a large percentage of your state. Glad you’ll be getting rid of him. Must be killing him that Rhode Island recognizes marriages performed in other states.
David: Before he was governor Carcieri was the CEO of Cookson America. He ran on a typical businessman’s Republican platform of, “I’ll run government like a business” and promised to lower taxes and make the sun shine all the time. You get the picture. In addition, he led people to think he was a moderate Chafee-style Republican not like those republicans on the national stage, and would focus on financial and economic issues and keep away from social issues. Turns out, he lied. I console myself by noting that my candidate against Carcieri was Sheldon Whitehouse and if he had won we might not have Whitehouse in the Senate now, which I’m grateful for.
About RI recognizing out of state marriages, that’s not quite a settled issue. Our Attorney General, Patrick Lynch, has written an opinion that RI recognizes same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal. But the context of that opinion is such that it applies only to some very specific facts and circumstances. I believe the case had something to do with employment benefits for a same-sex spouse where the employee was covered under a state/municipal contract. I think the AG’s analysis is correct, but the bottom line is that the RI Supreme Court has NOT reached that same opinion and has not yet heard a case that presents the same question in a way that would make it a sweeping matter of law.
The RI Supreme Court did hear a case that asked whether the RI Family Court has jurisdiction to hear a same-sex divorce case where the marriage was performed in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, they said no and based their opinion on the fact that the Family Court exists as a creation of statute with specific delegated jurisdictional powers including the power to hear matters related to “marriage” and (this is the terrible part) because the statute was written in the 1960s the RI Supreme Court interpreted the word marriage to mean what the legislature must have thought it meant in the 1960s.
And here we have a judge who heard a divorce case and she ruled that not only could she hear the case and grant the divorce, she said to hell with our Attorney General and oh, by the way, DOMA is unconstitutional. But aren’t all these ruling what makes it all so much fun?
Once you get rid of Carcieri, it’ll be interesting to see if RI will be the next to pass same-sex marriage. When’s the election? Tomorrow, I hope.
Maddening that so many devout Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and overseas Islamists believe it is fine to tell the rest of us what to do with our own bodies and our own lives — sex, marriage, abortion, adoption, the list goes on. Neither my body nor my soul is their business.
I know! I love that Texas judge! It really is fun as a spectator sport and I’ll admit to enjoying the entertainment value of following it all around the country. Only, it’s a little less fun when you stop and think about the real people who bear the consequences and especially the children of these couples who suffer under such legal limbo.
The elections are in November, of course. That means that a marriage equality bill is likely dead in Rhode Island again this year because the governor will veto it. A marriage equality bill has been introduced every year since 1997. Every one has their sights set on 2011 hoping that the next governor cares about little things like civil rights and equal protection under the law.
I’m supporting Patrick Lynch, the current Attorney General, who I mentioned above wrote that opinion that RI recognizes out-of-state same-sex marriages. He’s stated that if the General Assembly passes a marriage equality lawhe’ll sign it.
I’m with Joe: marriage equality or bust, and let’s let the impartial courts decide our civil rights issues–they have a better record than the electorate.
Todd Giroux, Independent Candidate for Governor. http://www.rigovernor2010.com
Civil Rights includes Marriage Equality.
Economic Development Policy to be in line with.. “ The 90% of small business to restart the local economy ” Credit cash flow must be made available to small business even as property asset value and credit scores fall. Ten years attempts to bring bio-tech without a technology corridor or retraining has failed the 90% of small brick-mortar & service businesses. Housing values will return based upon demand when the toxic assets are set aside for troubled homeowners to rebuld their lives through foreclosure protection without bankruptcy.
The True Independent Candidate on behalf of the citizen, Giroux can broker the deals that turn unemployment dollars, stimulus dollars, and pension dollars into middleclass, mainstreet accessable working green jobs, and homestead protection on a statewide level for the people who made those dollars.
Giroux for Governor 2010