New York now has full marriage equality, Illinois, Hawaii, Delaware, Rhode Island have advanced civil unions this year.
In New England and the North East, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and DC have now approved either full marriage or near-marriage for same-sex couples. The gaps are Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
One distinguishing feature of the New York victory was the superb political work of Governor Cuomo and his allies in getting all supporters working together, and well-funded. It will not always be possible to do so as effectively elsewhere. A second important feature in New York, and also in Rhode Island, was a willingness to make necessary compromises in order to make progress. NY accepted last-minute religious opt-outs in late negotiations, R.I. accepted the second prize of civil unions rather than full marriage, and also introduced some opt-outs for religion. These compromises are not satisfactory, and in an ideal world should not be necessary- but we do not live in an ideal world. The bottom line is that real progress has been made in two states where it has been stalled for years.
Maryland will have another chance to make progress next year. For Pennsylvania, we must wait and see. The legislative lessons from New York and Rhode Island are clear.
In compromise, R.I. approves civil unions for same-sex couples
Less than a week after same-sex marriage was legalized in New York, the Rhode Island State Senate approved a bill last night allowing not marriage, but civil unions for gay couples, despite fierce opposition from gay-rights advocates who called the legislation discriminatory.
The bill, which already passed in the state’s House of Representatives and which the governor said he was likely to sign, would grant same-sex couples most of the rights and benefits that Rhode Island provides married couples. It was offered as a compromise this spring after Gordon D. Fox, the openly gay speaker of the Democrat-controlled House, said he could not muster enough votes to pass a same-sex marriage bill.
- The Boston Globe.
Related articles
- Rhode Island lawmakers approve gay civil unions (cbsnews.com)
- Rhode Island governor intends to sign newly passed gay civil-unions bill (miamiherald.typepad.com)
- Rhode Island Senate Grants Civil Unions (bilerico.com)
Re. Rhode Island: have you seen this? Bishop Tobin’s response:
http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=8841&MediaType=1&Category=26
Yes, John, sadly I have. I’ve tried to restrain myself from responding in anger - instead I’m looking at the astonishing, good news from Brazil (posted this pm), and a follow-up post I’m working on, that shows that globally, Catholic countries are leading on marriage and civil unions.