No votes taken on same-sex marriage bills

PROVIDENCE — Jenn Steinfeld celebrated an anniversary of sorts in a crowded committee room at the State House last night.

For the 10th year running, the executive director of Marriage Equality RI testified in support of same-sex marriage.

Change, she said, takes time. But ultimately, it is inevitable. In what may be a sign of changing times, the perennial legislative debate over gay marriage saw a new addition last night: the question of whether same-sex couples married in other states should be allowed to divorce in Rhode Island.

Sponsored by House Majority Leader and Providence Democrat Gordon D. Fox, an openly gay man, that proposal would do what the Supreme Court elected not to in a decision late last year –– allow couples to opt out of an unhappy marriage.

 

 

No votes taken on same-sex marriage bills