New England is now officially the gay-friendliest place in all the land. Rhode Island became the 10th state to legalize gay marriage today following a 56-15 vote by the House of Representatives. It’s joined Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts to become the sixth state in the northern region to allow same-sex marriage.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee has signed the legislation while hundreds, including Rhode Island’s congressional delegation, state lawmakers and advocates for same-sex marriage gathered at the Statehouse to celebrate the new law, which had already passed the House and Senate once.
House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay, reportedly had tears in his eyes during the debate. A large crowd gathered on the floor and in the galleries to watch the House proceedings and gave standing ovations to many lawmakers following their speeches.
The new law will take effect August 1.
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Congrats Rhode Islanders!
Jessup
Congratulations to my HOME STATE! We Did it!
Davennc
Congrats to Rhode Island!!! Too bad North Carolina is still haunted by the bigoted ghost of Jesse Helms.
But who wrote this? “New England state is now officially the gay-friendliest place in all the land.”
New England isn’t a state but a geographic region such as “The South” or “The Midwest”. I’m not an English teacher (actually a French teacher though) but shouldn’t a “writer” be able to correctly conjugate English verbs and know basic geography? It should be “New England STATES ARE now officially…”….just saying…..
grr_argh
@Davennc: ok ok are you platt or detiveaux?
dandan79
great news!
Boytoy
Yay!
Joetx
New England rocks!
The South sucks.
Dakotahgeo
“Inch by inch, everything’s a cinch!” ~Dr. Robert H. Schuler~ Hour of Power- Early 80s!
Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui
Lasciviousness and licentiousness conspired to force same-sex marriage legislation on civil society. Debauchery hails its promulgation.
Here are two truths regarding marriage: (1) A man creating a family with another man is not equal to creating a family with a woman, and (2) denying children parents of both genders at home is an objective evil. Kids need and yearn for both.
Same-sex marriage couples selfishly demand “Marriage Equality”, yet, in return, they offer LESS-THAN-EQUAL protection of the child’s happiness than can be afforded through the presence of both biological parents. In the name of “Marriage Equality”, same-sex marriage leaves the child fully aware that his family is, in all truth, not at all “equal”, natural, nor complete. The use of the term “marriage Equality” by same-sex marriage proponents selfishly ignores the child’s perspective of “equality”.
Same-sex marriage couples profess that it is love which gives the right to join the institution of marriage, yet, in doing so, they selfishly violate the principle LOVING objective of this noble institution; to protect a child’s Natural Right to be raised by both biological parents.
In fine, same-sex marriage surmounts to nothing more than an unnatural extravagance which the supporters most ignorantly claim to be a “right”.
“No one has a right to do that which, if everybody did it, would destroy society.” —Immanuel Kant
FStratford
@Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui: Quit cut and pasting dudE. it’s ridic.
Dakotahgeo
@Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui: I’ve seen your other comments elsewhere on the web. Copy/paste… not cool, not intelligent.
the other Greg
Rhode Island is underrated and beautiful. I hope August 1 leads to a tourism boom – great beaches, Newport, Block Island, the clam cakes at Narragansett, the scruffy old bars in Providence… the incredibly picturesque old mills where child labor was practiced… the “Family Guy” bus tours!… maybe we’ll finally get Brooklyn hipsters moving into all the cheap abandoned factory buildings before the Brazilian crack addicts accidently burn them down.
@Davennc: You were right and they corrected it! Yay! I think RI was mostly just embarrassed that New Hampshire beat them to it. Maine was bad enough, but NH? Uck.
@Dakotahgeo: Are you sure it wasn’t Dr. Seuss who said that?
@Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui: “If straight people really want gay people to stop having sex, we should FORCE them to get married!” – Roseanne Barr
Davennc
@Davennc: Thank you Queerty for correcting and updating the article!!! Glad to know someone there can write!
🙂
cato76
9 states plus 1 commonwealth. Correct?
Dakotahgeo
@the other Greg: Yes, the other Greg… after looking into this in Google, the quote might be by John Bytheway, but quoted by dozens after him. I know I first heard it from Dr. Schuller in the early/mid 80s. Thanks for prodding me to do some research, albeit, a wee bit late :). Dak!
daniwitz13
@Dakotahgeo: Evidently both that complain about copy and paste are those that say ANYTHING long and profound enough to copy and Paste. Short retorts are their ONLY forte’. Pity
P.S. Rhode Island has just redefined and redesigned NATURE.
the other Greg
@Dakotahgeo: Thanks – also I need to apologize for a certain ethnic remark I made earlier; no doubt Rhode Island has all kinds of non-Portuguese-speaking crack addicts living in abandoned factory buildings. The news media sensationalize everything!
@cato76: uh… yeah!
Dakotahgeo
@daniwitz13: And Rhode Island and the other 9 and a city did quite a remarkable and tasteful job of it, I might add! More states are catching on. And your point was????
Akod69
From Jakarta, Indonesia… Congratulations, Rhode Island and its people… You’re on the right side of the history of the USA and the world!!!…
allanl
From RI: What a relief, to be part of the 21st century at last.
You can’t please everyone, but the vast majority of RIers are for equality. The others will just have to look the other way.
EGO
Congrats to our neighbor, now New England is gayly united. My partner and I live in Massachusetts and next month on June 10 will be our 9th marriage anniversary as we were married June 10, 2004. On March 4we celebrated our 51st partner anniversary, we met March 4, 1962, when I was in the Navy, yes, I am a Navy Vet. Perhaps we should have waited to marry in March 2005 so we would have the same anniversary date and we would not have to keep track of two anniversaries! :>)
EGO
@Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui: You must be living in the dark ages. Many married heterosexuals do not have and do not want children. As for equality, gay people are equally taxed for Federal, State, Social Security, Medicare, and property taxes which 55% is for children. Fortunately most people are intelligent enough to learn i.e. the world is not flat, gays were declared as normal by the medical profession in 1973,the phrase – “The marriage of two businesses” does not require one business to be a man and the business to be a woman. Marriage is a word and Marriage Licenses are a civil requirement, not a religious requirement. It is time for you to join the modern world.
Akod69
@EGO: Congratulations, guys!!! I’m very happy for you both… keep shining and loving…
Akod69
@Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui: ““…would destroy society.” —Immanuel Kant” … Society? What or which society? Did you mean the society of your kind, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui… the Bigotry society?
Dakotahgeo
@EGO: I’m afraid it takes intelligence and compassion to do that. daniboy lacks both. Also Delaware appears to be on a short threshold to be the 11th state to share the SS Marriage honors… Congratulations to them when that occurs.
@Akod69 — daniboy quotes a long bygone philosopher to mirror today’s society. How quaint, how obtuse, how… backward! Thank you for calling him on it!
Dakotahgeo
@Akod69: daniboy quotes a long bygone philosopher to mirror today’s society. How quaint, how obtuse, how… backward! Thank you for calling him on it!