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Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Rhode Island since August 1, 2013. The state had authorized a limited form of domestic partnerships from 2002 to 2011 and the formation of civil unions from 2011 until the state began recognizing same-sex marriages in 2013. Rhode Island was the last U.S. state in New England to legalize same-sex marriage.
Same-sex marriage was first debated in the 1990s, [1] but faced fierce opposition from the Catholic Church, which is influential in the state as Rhode Island has the highest proportion of Catholic residents of any state in the United States. Despite political opposition, Rhode Island began allowing unregistered domestic partnerships in 2002 that provided a small number of legal benefits to same-sex couples. For example, the surviving spouse in such a partnership, if a police officer, fire fighter, or correctional officer, could receive a death benefit. Domestic partners could adjust their state taxes to reflect the costs of health insurance premiums, [2] and could control the funeral arrangements of a deceased partner. [3] This status became inactive with the state's adoption of civil unions. [2]
In February 2007, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued an opinion advising that same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts be recognized in Rhode Island. He said that "his interpretation permitted recognition of the marriages, although he acknowledged that it was just an opinion and did not have the force of law." [4] The Human Rights Campaign noted that "This is not a binding opinion and the attorney general noted that this question will most likely be answered by the courts." [2] [5]
In September 2006, Massachusetts Superior Court Justice Thomas E. Connolly ruled that same-sex couples who live in Rhode Island can marry in Massachusetts. The ruling was a response to a 1913 law that prohibited Massachusetts from performing marriages that were not legal in the couple's home state. The ruling did not affect the status of such marriages in Rhode Island. [6]
In December 2007, the Rhode Island Supreme Court held, in a 3–2 opinion in Chambers v, Ormiston, that the state's Family Court lacked jurisdiction to hear a divorce petition involving a same-sex couple who were married in Massachusetts. Justice William P. Robinson III wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice Frank J. Williams and Justice Frank Flaherty. Justice Paul Suttell's dissent was joined by Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg. [7]
Civil union licenses were issued by the state of Rhode Island between July 1, 2011 and August 1, 2013. Civil unions provided couples with almost all of the rights and benefits of marriage under state law. Same-sex couples could however not access the federal benefits of marriage until the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor on June 26, 2013.
In 2001, there was an attempt (similar to Vermont's civil union law) to create civil unions under Rhode Island's domestic relations statutes. Any Rhode Island law applying to marriages would have also applied to the newly created civil unions. The bill was introduced to the Rhode Island House of Representatives, but the Judiciary Committee defeated it. [8]
In May 2011, a bill to legalize civil unions was introduced to the Rhode Island General Assembly. [9] On May 19, 2011, the bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 62–11, with two representatives not voting. [10] [11] The Senate then passed the bill on a vote of 21–16 on June 29. [12] [13] Governor Lincoln Chafee signed the legislation on July 2, 2011, and it retroactively took effect as of July 1, 2011. [14] [15] The legislation included extensive and controversial exemptions that allowed any religiously affiliated organization or institution, such as schools, universities and hospitals, to deny recognition of spouses in a civil union, which made it unpopular with advocates of same-sex marriage. [16] Participation in civil unions was very low. [16] As of February 2012, only 46 couples had established civil unions. [17] On August 1, 2013, when the state began offering same-sex marriage, it stopped offering civil unions, though it continues to recognize existing ones. [18]
Bills to legalize same-sex marriage were first proposed in 1998. In 2004, Representative Arthur Handy and Senator Rhoda Perry introduced same-sex marriage legislation to the General Assembly. Perry's bill had four co-sponsors, and Handy's bill had 11 House co-sponsors. Both the House and Senate judiciary committees held hearings on the marriage bills, but neither took any action. Handy and Perry reintroduced their bills in 2005 with more co-sponsors, including two Republican lawmakers. [19] In early 2011, legislation to legalize same-sex marriage was introduced to the General Assembly. Governor Lincoln Chafee, an independent at the time, had previously indicated that he would sign such legislation if it were approved by the Assembly. [20] In April 2011, the legislation stalled due to lack of support in the Assembly, [21] and contentious debate. [22]
On May 14, 2012, Governor Chafee signed an executive order recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages. [23] [24]
On January 3, 2013, Representative Arthur Handy and Senator Donna Nesselbush introduced legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. The House version had 42 out of 75 members as sponsors, while the Senate version had 11 out of 38 senators. [25] [26] On January 7, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence, Thomas Tobin, called the legislation "immoral and unnecessary" and recommended a referendum over enacting same-sex marriage by statute. [27] Governor Chafee said on January 11 that he would probably veto such a referendum. [28] The Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island, Nicholas Knisely, said he was "eager to see our state legislature join many others across the country in passing legislation to ensure civil marriage equality." [29]
The House Judiciary Committee approved the legislation unanimously on January 22. [30] The House passed the bill on a 51–19 vote two days later. [31] [32] The Rhode Island Council of Churches endorsed the legislation on January 31. [33] On April 23, all 5 Republican state senators announced their support for the legislation—the first time a party's caucus in a state legislature had supported same-sex marriage unanimously [34] —and the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the legislation in a 7–4 vote, while defeating a proposal to present the issue to voters as a referendum. [35] On April 24, the Rhode Island Senate passed an amended version of the bill by a 26–12 vote. [36] [37] [38] On April 30, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the amended legislation. [39] The House passed the legislation on May 2 on a vote of 56 to 15, [40] and Chafee signed it into law the same day. [41] [42] [43] Bishop Tobin reiterated his opposition the same day and wrote a letter to Rhode Island Catholics that said "homosexual acts are ... always sinful" and advised that "Catholics should examine their consciences very carefully before deciding whether or not to endorse same-sex relationships or attend same-sex ceremonies. To do so might harm their relationship with God." [18]
The legislation took effect on August 1, 2013, [18] with the first marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples when offices opened at 8:30 a.m. that day. [44] The first couple to be issued a license in Providence were Gary McDowell and Zachary Marcus, who filed marriage paperwork at Providence City Hall shortly after 8:30 a.m. on August 1. [45] The definition of marriage in Rhode Island law is now the following: [46]
Marriage is the legally recognized union of two (2) people. Terms relating to the marital relationship or familial relationships shall be construed consistently with this section for all purposes throughout the law, whether in the context of statute, administrative or court rule, policy, common law, or any other source of civil law. [RI Gen L § 15-1-7]
The state law recognizing same-sex marriages does not apply to the Narragansett Indian Tribe, which has jurisdiction over marriages and divorces performed under tribal law. It is unclear if same-sex marriage is legal on the reservation as tribal officials have not publicly commented on the issue. [47]
While there are no records of same-sex marriages as understood from a Western perspective being performed in Native American cultures, there is evidence for identities and behaviours that may be placed on the LGBT spectrum. Many of these cultures recognized two-spirit individuals who were born male but wore women's clothing and performed everyday household work and artistic handiwork which were regarded as belonging to the feminine sphere. [48] It is possible that the Narragansett people traditionally allowed for marriages between two biological males through a two-spirit status, but a lot of traditional knowledge was lost in the aftermath of colonization, and so it is unknown if such two-spirit individuals were historically allowed to marry. [48] Two-spirit people are referred to as neese manittówock in Narragansett. [49]
Data from the 2000 U.S. census showed that 2,471 same-sex couples were living in Rhode Island, with most couples living in Providence and Kent counties. Same-sex partners in Rhode Island were on average younger than opposite-sex partners, and significantly more likely to be employed. The median household income of same-sex couples was similar to that of different-sex couples, but same-sex couples were far less likely to own a home than opposite-sex partners. 12% of same-sex couples in Rhode Island were raising children under the age of 18, with an estimated 400 children living in households headed by same-sex couples in 2000. [50]
The 2020 U.S. census showed that there were 2,775 married same-sex couple households (1,217 male couples and 1,558 female couples) and 2,204 unmarried same-sex couple households in Rhode Island. [51]
An independent poll conducted by Brown University in May 2009 showed that 60 percent of Rhode Islanders supported legalizing same-sex marriage, while 31 percent opposed doing so. [52] Various polls have been commissioned by participants in the same-sex marriage debate, including by the Rhode Island chapter of the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which opposes same-sex marriage. The poll results reflect different question wording and sampling, with NOM's polls generally showing far weaker support for same-sex marriage than other polls. [53]
Slightly more than half of Rhode Islanders are Catholic. [54] A survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the Rhode Island Marriage Coalition in August 2010 showed that 63 percent of Catholics supported same-sex marriage provided it did not infringe on the church's right to choose whom it marries. [55]
A poll from Public Policy Polling conducted in January 2013 found that 57 percent of Rhode Island voters supported the legalization of same-sex marriage and 36 percent opposed legalization. Given other options, 31 percent preferred civil unions to marriage and 13 percent opposed all forms of legal recognition for same-sex relationships. [56] A survey conducted by the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University on February 21–23, 2013 found that 60.4 percent of Rhode Island voters supported same-sex marriage, while 26.1 percent were opposed. [57]
2015 and 2016 polls from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that 69 percent and 67 percent of respondents in Rhode Island supported same-sex marriage, respectively. [58] [59] In 2017, the PRRI placed support for same-sex marriage at 78 percent, with 17 percent opposed and 5 percent undecided. [60] A PRRI survey conducted between March 8 and November 9, 2021 showed that 82% of Rhode Island respondents supported same-sex marriage, while 17% opposed and 1% were undecided. This level of support was similar to neighboring New England states, including Massachusetts at 85% and Connecticut and Vermont at 77%. [61] According to a survey conducted by the same polling organization between March 11 and December 14, 2022, 80% of Rhode Island respondents supported same-sex marriage, while 14% were opposed. [62]
A civil union is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage.
Same-sex marriage was progressively introduced in several provinces and territories of Canada by court decisions beginning in 2003 before being legally recognized nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act on July 20, 2005. On June 10, 2003, the Court of Appeal for Ontario issued a decision immediately legalizing same-sex marriage in Ontario, thereby becoming the first province where it was legal. The introduction of a federal gender-neutral marriage definition made Canada the fourth country in the world, and the first country outside Europe, to legally recognize same-sex marriage throughout its borders. Before the federal recognition of same-sex marriage, court decisions had already introduced it in eight out of ten provinces and one of three territories, whose residents collectively made up about 90 percent of Canada's population. More than 3,000 same-sex couples had already married in those areas before the Civil Marriage Act was passed. Most legal benefits commonly associated with marriage had been extended to cohabiting same-sex couples since 1999.
Lincoln Davenport Chafee is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a member of the Democratic Party from 2013 to 2019; in June 2019, The Boston Globe reported that he had become a registered Libertarian, having previously been a Republican until September 2007 and an independent and then a Democrat in the interim.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Vermont since September 1, 2009. Vermont was the first state to introduce civil unions on July 1, 2000, and the first state to introduce same-sex marriage by enacting a statute without being required to do so by a court decision. Same-sex marriage became legal earlier as the result of court decisions, not legislation, in four states: Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, and Iowa.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the District of Columbia since March 3, 2010. On December 18, 2009, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a bill passed by the D.C. Council on December 15 legalizing same-sex marriage. Following the signing, the measure entered a mandatory congressional review of 30 work days. Marriage licenses became available on March 3, and marriages began on March 9, 2010. The District of Columbia was the first jurisdiction in the United States below the Mason–Dixon line to allow same-sex couples to marry.
This article contains a timeline of significant events regarding same-sex marriage and legal recognition of same-sex couples worldwide. It begins with the history of same-sex unions during ancient times, which consisted of unions ranging from informal and temporary relationships to highly ritualized unions, and continues to modern-day state-recognized same-sex marriage. Events concerning same-sex marriages becoming legal in a country or in a country's state are listed in bold.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Washington since December 6, 2012. On February 13, 2012, Governor Christine Gregoire signed legislation that established full marriage rights for same-sex couples in the state of Washington. Opponents mounted a challenge that required voters to approve the statute at a referendum, which they did on November 6. The law took effect on December 6, and the first marriages were celebrated on December 9. Within a couple of days, more than 600 marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples in King County alone.
In response to court action in a number of states, the United States federal government and a number of state legislatures passed or attempted to pass legislation either prohibiting or allowing same-sex marriage or other types of same-sex unions.
Marie Teresa Paiva-Weed is an American attorney and politician who served as President of the Rhode Island Senate. She is a member of the Democratic Party who represented the 13th District from 2003 until 2013 and the 49th District from 1993 to 2003. In November 2008, she was elected President of the Senate. She was Majority Leader from 2004 to 2008. Paiva-Weed left office in 2017 to become President of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Guam since June 9, 2015 in accordance with a ruling from the District Court of Guam on June 5 that the territory's prohibition of same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Guam was the first overseas territory of the United States to recognize same-sex marriage. On August 27, 2015, the Guam Marriage Equality Act of 2015 passed by the Guam Legislature came into effect, officially incorporating the federal court ruling into statutory law.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Pennsylvania since May 20, 2014, when a U.S. federal district court judge ruled that the state's 1996 statutory ban on recognizing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Governor Tom Corbett announced the following day that he would not appeal the decision. Pennsylvania had previously prohibited the recognition of same-sex marriage by statute since 1996, but had never added such a ban to its State Constitution.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of Delaware enjoy the same legal protections as non-LGBT persons. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Delaware since January 1, 1973. On January 1, 2012, civil unions became available to same-sex couples, granting them the "rights, benefits, protections, and responsibilities" of married persons. Delaware legalized same-sex marriage on July 1, 2013.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Delaware since July 1, 2013. Governor Jack Markell signed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage on May 7, 2013, just hours after its passage in the Delaware House of Representatives and Senate. Though Rhode Island enacted legislation legalizing same-sex marriage before Delaware, on July 1, Delaware became the eleventh U.S. state, and the twelfth U.S. jurisdiction, to allow same-sex couples to marry, preceding Minnesota and Rhode Island by one month.
Edward J. O'Neill is an American politician from Rhode Island who represented the 17th District in the Rhode Island Senate from 2009 to 2017.
Raymond J. Sullivan Jr. was an American politician who served as Democratic member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He represented the 29th District from 2005 to 2011, serving as the deputy majority leader. Sullivan died on October 12, 2021, at his home in Providence, Rhode Island at the age of 44.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Hawaii enjoy the same rights as non-LGBT people. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1973; Hawaii being one of the first six states to legalize it. In 1993, a ruling by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court made Hawaii the first state to consider legalizing same-sex marriage. Following the approval of the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act in November 2013, same-sex couples have been allowed to marry on the islands. Additionally, Hawaii law prohibits discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity, and the use of conversion therapy on minors has been banned since July 2018. Gay and lesbian couples enjoy the same rights, benefits and treatment as opposite-sex couples, including the right to marry and adopt.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Rhode Island have the same legal rights as non-LGBT people. Rhode Island established two types of major relationship recognition for same-sex couples, starting with civil unions on July 1, 2011, and then on August 1, 2013 with same-sex marriage. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is outlawed within the state namely in the areas of employment, housing, healthcare and public accommodations. In addition, conversion therapy on minors has been banned since 2017.
This article contains a timeline of significant events regarding same-sex marriage in the United States. On June 26, 2015, the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges effectively ended restrictions on same-sex marriage in the United States.
This is a list of notable events in LGBT rights that took place in the 2010s.
The state of Rhode Island, in the Northeast United States, has recorded LGBT history and individuals reaching back to the early 20th century. Prior to the 20th century, the state was also home to the Public Universal Friend and Charley Parkhurst, both well-known individuals with ambiguous gender identities. In 1995, the state became the ninth in the country to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2013, it became the tenth state to allow same-sex marriage.
it is still a complicated issue about whether these marriages will be respected in Rhode Island.
