There was nothing "happily ever after" in Rhode Island this year when it came to what many consider to be the defining civil rights battle of this generation.
After months of promise and protest, the General Assembly turned its back on Rhode Island's strident Marriage Equality movement and passed a Civil Unions law that seems not to have pleased anyone in the state--except perhaps the House and Senate leadership, who seemed relieved to move on past the contentious issue. Speaker of the House Gordon Fox took particular heat for the weak language in the bill that was prompted by Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed.
Portrayed as a stepping-stone compromise to a fuller version of equal rights for anyone to be married in the state of Rhode Island no matter what their gender combination, the compromise legislation passed in June contained restrictions that left large holes. Primarily, the bill contained controversial exemptions that allow any religiously affiliated organization or institution such as schools, universities, and hospitals to deny benefits to married same-sex couples. Governor Chafee, who promised during his campaign that he would sign a Marriage Equality legislation into law, quietly signed the gutted compromise in July.
The result has been a low level of participation in civil unions assumed to be because the protections in the current law are so limited.
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