Rhode Island Gov. Denounces Same-Sex 'Marriage'

One governor is not shying away from defending true marriage in his state.

PROVIDENCE (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the same time as several New England states are under pressure to alter marriage laws to include same-sex couples, one governor is not shying away from defending true marriage in his state.

Immediately after Vermont's legislature overturned a veto to legalize same-sex "marriage" last Tuesday, Rhode Island's Gov. Donald Carcieri announced he would throw his support behind the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

"What I don't want to see happen with this issue is what's happening is courts deciding things or legislatures deciding things this is such an important issue I think its should be put to the voters," says Carcieri.

"In Massachusetts it was the court. In Vermont it was the legislature. I believe the issue ought to be dealt with by all of our citizens. ... And let them decide."

Just prior to Vermont's adoption of gender-neutral marriage language, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas promised a veto, but also said he would not urge legislators to comply. The veto was unsuccessful, making Vermont the fourth U.S. state to overturn marriage and the first to do so by the legislative process.

Sandwiched between two same-sex "marriage" states and dominated by Democrat legislators, Rhode Island is widely considered an upcoming target of same-sex "marriage" activists.

A Boston-based homosexualist legal group, whose cases swayed the supreme courts in Massachusetts and Connecticut, has already launched a campaign to legalize same-sex "marriage" in all six New England states by 2012.

Gov. David Paterson of New York formally introduced today a same-sex "marriage" bill to the state senate, legislation that the state assembly passed two years ago.

"I think it is, as other states are showing, the only ethical way to treat people who want to live together in peace under the civil law," Paterson said. Analysts, however, doubt that the bill will garner enough votes in the senate to survive.

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