RI gubernatorial candidates all for gay marriage

The three major candidates for Rhode Island governor have each publicly committed to signing a bill legalizing state-wide same-sex marriage if elected.

General Treasurer Frank Caprio and Attorney General Patrick Lynch, both Democrats, and former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who is running in November as an independent, made the pledge at a Statehouse rally on Wednesday, March 3.

Current R.I. Governor Don Carcieri steadfastly opposes marriage equality.
Moderate Party candidate Ken Block also supports gay marriage but was not able to attend the rally, which was organized by Marriage Equality Rhode Island. According to the Associated Press, a spokeswoman for Block said the party's executive director was there to represent him.

The marriage equality rally followed an anti-gay summit held in Smithfield, R.I., on Feb. 27. The Family Research Council -- a Washington, D.C.-based anti-gay organization -- sponsored the "New England Family, Life, and Marriage Summit" at the Ocean State Baptist Church. Among anti-gay supporters who were scheduled to speak at the event was Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council who recently stated on national television that homosexuality should be illegal.

"If the extremists at the Family Research Council are trying to find an opening in New England to promote their bigoted agenda, they are wasting their time," said Scott Gortikov, executive director of MassEquality. "With four out of six New England states granting same-sex couples full equality in marriage, it is clear that the vast majority of New Englanders are fair-minded people who aren't interested in taking rights away from their LGBT friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers."

While out-of-state same-sex marriages are recognized in Rhode Island, they cannot yet be performed there. MassEquality is working with Marriage Equality Rhode Island (MERI) to push for marriage equality in the state.

"If the Family Research Council and those attending its summit truly cared about promoting marriage and the family, they wouldn't be getting together to dream up ways to undermine the ability of LGBT people to provide for and protect their families," Gortikov said.

Rhode Island is the only New England state -- besides Maine -- that has not legalized same-sex marriage. Gay and lesbian couples can also legally marry in Washington, D.C. and Iowa, as well as in Belgium, Mexico City, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden, and in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province.