Vote Set for Today on Same-Sex Marriage
The state House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on the controversial measure for 3 pm on Jan. 22.
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A vote by the State House Judiciary committee on a bill allowing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island is scheduled for a vote tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m., the General Assembly Press Bureau announced.
The "Equal Access to Marriage" bill — submitted in the House by Cranston Rep. Arthur Handy and co-sponsored by Rep. Kenneth A. Marshall (D-Dist. 68, Bristol, Warren) — would make Rhode Island the last state in New England to allow same-sex marriages, and would recognize any civil unions as marriages.
According to a release from the General Assembly Press Bureau, "no further testimony will be taken at this hearing."
The agenda for today's hearing is attached to this article.
What's your take? Is it about time the government stops discriminating against gay Rhode Islanders, or is this an insult to the institution of marriage? Let us know in the comments section below.
Good Year
10:33 am on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Marriage is between a man and a woman. What is it about that that liberals don't understand.
Dan Johnson
1:04 pm on Wednesday, February 6, 2013
"The conservative movement, to which I subscribe, has as one of its basic tenets the belief that government should stay out of people’s private lives. Government governs best when it governs least - and stays out of the impossible task of legislating morality. But legislating someone’s version of morality is exactly what we do by perpetuating discrimination against gays."
“There has always been homosexuality, ever since man and woman were invented. I guess there were gay apes. So that's not an issue. The Republican Party should stand for freedom and only freedom. Don't raise hell about the gays, the Blacks and the Mexicans. Free people have a right to do as they damn well please."
"The big thing is to make this country, along with every other country in the world with a few exceptions, quit discriminating against people just because they're gay. You don't have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay." Conservative Icon, WW 2 hero, AZ Senator, and Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater
Chris St Peter
9:02 pm on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
That's Gay
Dan Johnson
1:49 pm on Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Treating gay people equally under the laws currently in effect for straight people does not alter what marriage is for straight people. It only expands who can participate. Denial of equality provides nothing to straight couples. It only harms same sex couple families needlessly.
"In the court’s final analysis, the government’s only basis for supporting DOMA comes down to an apparent belief that the moral views of the majority may properly be enacted as the law of the land in regard to state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in disregard of the personal status and living conditions of a significant segment of our pluralistic society. Such a view is not consistent with the evidence or the law as embodied in the Fifth Amendment with respect to the thoughts expressed in this decision. The court has no doubt about its conclusion: the Debtors have made their case persuasively that DOMA deprives them of the equal protection of the law to which they are entitled."