Rhode Island - The Fight For Gay Marriage Goes On!

 

So, civil unions are now legal in Rhode Island, but  that doesn’t mean people are happy about it.   Either side of the gay marriage debate there are unhappy faces, sad souls and the battle goes on.  Gay groups and campaigners are  holding out for full marriage rights for gay couples and will continue the fight as long as it takes.

 

Religious groups and those opposed to equality are unhappy that same sex people have managed to get some sort of union and there wasn’t a blanket ban on gays fighting for gay marriage in the future.

• Nobody is happy

Ray Sullivan, campaign director for the group Marriage Equality Rhode Island, tells The Associated Press on Tuesday that his group is looking ahead to next year's legislative session to pass gay marriage in the Ocean State. Sullivan says his group also plans to make gay marriage a key issue in the 2012 elections.

The General Assembly recessed for the summer last week after passing a law allowing gay couples to enter into civil unions that offer the rights given to married couples under Rhode Island law. Gay marriage supporters say the new law is no substitute for full marriage.

Rhode Island is one of the most Catholic states in the US, and the Catholic Church disapproves of civil unions as well as same-sex marriage. At the Rhode Island Catholic, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Diocese of Providence said: “The concept of civil unions is a social experiment that promotes an immoral lifestyle, is a mockery of the institution of marriage as designed by God, undermines the well-being of our families, and poses a threat to religious liberty.” In his statement, he also bars gay Catholics in Rhode Island from entering civil unions.

Elsewhere on the anti-gay front, Christopher Plainte, executive director of the Rhode Island branch of the National Organization for Marriage, has said that “this is a disappointing and dangerous day for marriage in Rhode Island” and that he thinks the Corvese Amendment did not go far enough.