Posted on 01/24/2013 5:36:59 PM PST by Alter Kaker
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Rhode Island House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation to allow gays and lesbians to marry in the only New England state where they can't.
The House voted 51-19 after an often emotional debate that touched on civil rights, religion and the nature of marriage. The bill now moves to the Senate, where both supporters and opponents of gay marriage say it is difficult to predict the bill's fate.
"This has been a long journey," said House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay and supported same-sex legislation when it was first introduced in 1997. "Today is a great day. Today ... we stand for equality, we stand for justice."
Thursday's vote posed the most significant challenge yet for gay marriage in Rhode Island. While the five other New England states already allow gay couples to marry, attempts have fallen flat in this heavily Catholic state.
"I wanted to be here to see it," said 70-year-old Warwick resident Ken Fish, who is gay. Fish showed up at the Statehouse hours early to ensure he had a seat in the crowded viewing gallery. "Go back 10 years, even five years, and I wasn't sure we'd ever get here. We're not done yet, but this is a big one."
Nine states and the District of Columbia now allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
No—not remotely close. Founded by dissenters from Mass. Heavy immigration last century caused the Catholic surge..
It won’t be long before love conquers incest, bestiality, and pedophilia - as long as there’s “consent,” of course.
And how long before consent goes away as the lone criterion? Why, it’s selfish to keep your body to yourself! Love means doing things you don’t want to, so strip down and bend over. It’s for the good of your fellow man/dog/thing!
I wish I was only joking.
They sat down, and squirted it right on out....
It was founded by Roger Williams, a born again Christian & Baptist, to escape from the oppressive state church (Puritans) in Massachusetts, who themselves had fled from England to escape the oppression of the Church of England. Roger Williams and other early Baptists in the America colonies are primarily why our nation had religious freedom, from either a state church or oppressive government, at least up to now.
From Wikipedia....
Providence was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers to settle.
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Regarding our heritage of religious freedom, primarily because of Baptists in early America....
Thomas Jefferson reassured the Danbury Baptists that he agreed with views on religious freedom & liberty.....
The Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut sent a letter, dated October 7, 1801, to the newly elected President Thomas Jefferson, expressing concern over the lack in their state constitution of explicit protection of religious liberty, and against a government establishment of religion.
In their letter to the President, the Danbury Baptists affirmed that "Our Sentiments are uniformly on the side of Religious Liberty — That Religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals — That no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious Opinions — That the legitimate Power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor..."[4]
As a religious minority in Connecticut, the Danbury Baptists were concerned that a religious majority might "reproach their chief Magistrate... because he will not, dare not assume the prerogatives of Jehovah and make Laws to govern the Kingdom of Christ," thus establishing a state religion at the cost of the liberties of religious minorities.
The wall of separation, Thomas Jefferson's response, dated January 1, 1802, concurs with the Danbury Baptists' views on religious liberty, and the accompanying separation of civil government from concerns of religious doctrine and practice. Jefferson writes: "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State
I guess they won't be satisfied until they get laws to punish anyone and everyone who doesn't accommodate them.
Even though Rhode Island is 'heavily Catholic', it's legislature is also heavily Democrat, and this is their latest pet issue.
This wasn't passed by the people of RI, but by the Democrat controlled legislature. Homosexual marriage was forced on the people of MA by the Supreme Judicial Court, and the Democrat controlled legislature refused the people of the Commonwealth the ability to vote on the issue.
In the vast majority of instances, voters haven't made the choice, it's been forced on them by their 'representatives', or the courts.
No. Roger Williams formed the colony of Providence Plantation, where any religion was welcome, because he'd seen what happened with the Puritans in MA.
Maryland was the colony that was formed for Catholics to be safe, but it was open for all, as well.
Yeah, sadly I have some Catholic friends falling for that crap.
of course it passed easily
the perverts have won
this country is toast
No - Roger Williams was protestant — I’m sure he would not have approved either.
Few things will thrill the people of RI more than this!
No, RI was Puritan at first; MD had considerable Catholics but was not a “Catholic” colony per se. Now both are perpetually lost causes.
I don’t know if Roger Williams’ “Baptists” are like the Baptists of today or just a dissident group of Puritans from MA at that time.
I disagree, voters of RI clearly want this, for they elected the legislators, probably over and over again.
Yes, that seems to be the limit of their thought process.
Another victory for the pathologically disturbed alliance of rimmers, felchers, and same-sex child molestors. Sex offenders fit for Sodom.
I'm led to recall a line from a well-known book written by the brother of a well-known eugenicist and disciple of Margaret Sanger:
Promiscuity is a citizen's duty.
Sadly almost all churches have accepted PC and tend to believe loving these perverts is the answer. Not the case God punished them, Jesus preached love but not to the extent these wacko’s have gone.
You hit the nail on the head, should have also mentioned fornication and pornography.
Then you don't understand the issue in the least. It's not at all about what happens in Rhode Island, it's about exporting this perversion everywhere and anywhere. And export, they will.
Texas is still, after 3 years, in a fight against a sodomite "couple" who got "married" in Massachusetts and now want to "divorce" in Texas.
Now, try telling us that this will be confined to a single state.
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