LGBT Rights

Two major bills will be in play this year to support and legitimize the relationships of same-sex couples: one will allow them to marry, the other to divorce. The ACLU will be providing lobbying support to Marriage Equality RI, the single-issue coalition pressing for passage of an equal marriage bill. And odd as it may seem, there is real need for a law allowing Rhode Island‘s same-sex couples who have been lawfully married elsewhere to be able to divorce in their own state. A divided R.I. Supreme Court ruling in 2008 held that state law provided no right for such couples to obtain a divorce in Family Court, leaving these couples in an intolerable legal limbo. Read our testimony on H 7990 relating to same-sex divorce.