News :: GLBT
Rhode Islanders Cheer Decision by Peter Cassels
EDGE ContributorSaturday Sep 30, 2006A crowd of more than 100 came together in a park overlooking downtown Providence Sept. 29 to celebrate the decision by a Massachusetts judge that same-sex Rhode Island couples can get married in Massachusetts.
Under a late afternoon sun in Prospect Park overlooking the statehouse, they toasted with sparkling cider Wendy Becker and Mary Norton, the Providence couple who were the plaintiffs in a case decided in their favor that day by a Massachusetts Superior Court judge. Later, Becker and Norton cut a white frosted cake and shared it with the celebrants.
Becker and Norton went to the Attleboro, Mass., town hall in 2004 and filed a notice of intention to marry after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that barring gay couples to marry violated the state’s constitution. Before they could actually marry, Gov. Mitt Romney invoked a 1913 law barring out-of-state couples from marrying if their marriage was not recognized in their home states. The order stopped town clerks from issuing marriage licenses to couples from other states. Earlier this year the SJC ruled that the law did not apply to couples whose home states do not ban such marriages.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly ruled that Rhode Island law does not expressly prohibit gay marriage. That decision, which Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly said he does not plan to appeal, means that town and city clerks in the state must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples from Rhode Island.
Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch issued a statement after the ruling saying that it does not change the status of same-sex marriage in the Ocean State. "This ruling does not authorize same-sex marriage in Rhode Island and it does not mean that Rhode Island will recognize a same-sex marriage performed in Massachusetts," his statement read. "As I have consistently explained, only the Rhode Island Legislature or a Rhode Island court can decide if a same-sex marriage is valid in Rhode Island."
Activists termed Connelly’s ruling a major victory. "Massachusetts has torn down the fence of discrimination we have at the border with Rhode Island," Michele Granda, a staff attorney at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based organization that represented Becker and Norton, told the cheering crowd.
Granda went on to say that GLAD knew in May 2004 when Romney invoked the 1913 law "that the governor was interpreting the law wrong. Even if the law were constitutional, it shouldn’t block couples from other states if their home states didn’t prohibit the marriage. When we saw that the SJC ruled to allow it, it would be just a matter of time before same-sex couples from out of state could marry in Massachusetts. ...Same sex couples can do it just as different sex couples can do it."
The GLAD attorney cautioned that the Massachusetts court decision "won’t be a shortcut to marriage in Rhode Island. Getting married here is still going to require a change in Rhode Island law. The legislature needs to act."
"We’re thrilled that Rhode Island couples can come to Massachusetts and be treated as first class citizens and we hope that we can move that argument forward," Granda also said. "Tell the Rhode Island Legislature that ’I shouldn’t have to get in my car to be treated equally. I should be able to do it here.’ This ruling is a first step for you and we’re going to work with you the rest of the way."
Granda said Rhode Island couples interested in getting married in Massachusetts should visit www.glad.org or phone GLAD’s legal infoline at 1-800-455-4523 for what’s involved and the impact on their relationships.
Jenn Stenfeld, co-chair of Marriage Equality Rhode Island, told the crowd the organization is "committed to being here until the law changes here in Rhode Island."
In his brief remarks, MERI Co-Chair Frank Ferri echoed, "We’ll be back at the statehouse in January."
"Massachusetts has torn down the fence of discrimination we have at the border with Rhode Island." Rep. Art Handy, D-Cranston, who attended the celebration, told EDGE he plans on reintroducing equal marriage he has sponsored for several years in the next legislative session. "First I think it’s a great day for Rhode Islanders," he said. "I still plan to go full steam ahead with legislation because we still want to have that law to make sure couples here can get married here."
The Rev. Stephen Landale, pastor at Bell Street Chapel, a Unitarian Universalist Church in Providence, appeared at the celebration dressed in vestments he wears to marry couples. Accompanied by a group of clergy, he said they stand ready to marry couples in Rhode Island.
Inspired by the court decision, Judy McDonnell and Wendy Baker told celebrants they will now get married in Massachusetts. McDonnell said the couple met 13 years ago when she was playing at a softball game and Baker was an umpire. "She called me out when I was safe," McDonnell recalled. "She yelled at me and I yelled at her. It was love at first fight."
In his toast to Becker and Norton, Tony Carpaco, Ferri’s spouse (they were married in Canada last summer) noted that in Rhode Island, "we are fortunate to have some of the most committed activists possible working with us day in and day out to make sure marriage equality becomes a reality in Rhode island, so while this decision is a major victory today, our next victory will be when we can get married in our own backyard." He ended the toast with the phrase, "To equality."
Becker told the crowd, "To those here who have already been married, who have taken the courageous step to go to Massachusetts and elsewhere, we follow proudly in your footsteps." She also noted, "We shouldn’t have to cross the border to get married."
Despite Lynch’s statement that Massachusetts same-sex marriages won’t be recognized in Rhode Island, Granda told EDGE it’s been the rule that Rhode Island will recognize a marriage no matter where the marriage was celebrated.
"What we see already is couples married in Massachusetts who are in Rhode Island is that they are finding respect in a lot of ways," Granda reported. Examples she noted are private employers providing health benefits to the same-sex spouses and the Rhode Island general treasurer saying that same-sex spouses are included in the state employee retirement system. She also said GLAD was involved in a case of a retired school teacher in Tiverton who was able to get retiree health benefits for her spouse. "There is every reason to believe that if you are a married spouse in Massachusetts that Rhode Island would recognize that marriage," she contended. "There are no exceptions for that."
In an EDGE interview, Steinfeld acknowledged that she doesn’t know what the next steps will be for Rhode Islanders who get married in Massachusetts. "It’s a brand-new thing." She added that MERI hasn’t heard specifically of any cases of discrimination involving couples who have married in Massachusetts, "but I imagine that we will. So we know there are going to be next steps that we can’t foresee at this point but it is a step forward for marriage equality in Rhode Island and we’re excited to see that."
Steinfeld acknowledged that it is difficult to determine what the impact on Rhode Island legislators will be "because we have the lag time between now and January and we have an election coming up."
She also said she believes that over time it will become less of an issue "because we know that we’re going to have many more married couples in our housing communities throughout the state and because Massachusetts is so close, it will become much more arbitrary discrimination and I think really that it eliminates a barrier for us. In Massachusetts there was a lot of fear of the unknown and it really reduces that fear because it’s not the unknown. It’s your friends and neighbors and colleagues and it really doesn’t change anything but that couples have a legal bond with each other."
Steinfeld knows couples who are planning to get married in Massachusetts. Others, including she and her partner Lauren, haven’t yet reached a decision. "We go back and forth on whether we want to hold out for whether it happens here in Rhode Island or whether we want to go to Massachusetts and come back here and continue our fight, certainly."
Peter Cassels is a recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Excellence in Journalism award. His e-mail address is pcassels@edgepublications.com.
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