News & Commentary

The RI ACLU reported today that, after six months, “an embarrassingly small number of couples” – only forty-six – have taken advantage of Rhode Island’s civil union law, which was enacted over the strong protests of the state’s gay and lesbian community. Those figures contrast sharply with newly-released data from Delaware and Hawaii, states with similar populations to Rhode Island, and which implemented their own civil union laws last month. In the first month of those laws, Hawaii reported the issuance of at least 106 civil union licenses, and Delaware reported more than 85. Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, only seven couples obtained civil union licenses in November and December, including just one for the entire month of December. Those numbers remain far behind any other state with civil union, marriage or domestic partnership laws.

Following up on a detailed report it issued two months ago, the Rhode Island ACLU said today that the latest statistics show that Rhode Island’s civil union law, enacted over the strong protests of the community it was designed to benefit, remains “a fiasco” that highlights the need for passage of true marriage equality legislation.  The newest statistics show that in the first four months since the law took effect, only thirty-nine gay and lesbian couples have taken advantage of the statute to obtain “civil union” status.

The Rhode Island ACLU today issued a report calling Rhode Island’s new civil union law, enacted over the strong protests of the community it was designed to benefit, “a fiasco” that highlights the need for passage of true marriage equality legislation. The report states that “it is difficult to think of another ‘civil rights’ bill that has generated so much attention, yet done so little for so few.”

Below is a statement issued today by RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown on Speaker of the House Gordon Fox's announcement last week that instead of voting on a same-sex marriage bill, the House will instead consider "civil union" legislation in its place:

The Rhode Island ACLU today applauded the General Assembly for approving a series of civil liberties-protective bills over the veto of Governor Donald Carcieri. The three pieces of legislation – covering the right to privacy, civil rights, and gay rights – were enacted into law yesterday by overwhelming margins.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today released a report sharply critical of Governor Donald Carcieri’s civil rights record during the first year of his second term in office. The 50-page report “The Politics of Division,” focuses on five major issues the Governor has dealt with this year, and argues that “in a period of just a few months and in a wide variety of contexts, he has shown a virtually complete lack of interest in recognizing, much less protecting, the civil rights of individuals and groups that have been long-standing victims of discriminatory treatment.”

Citing his “inexplicable” attack on the state’s no-fault divorce laws, four organizations concerned about the rights of women have called on Governor Donald Carcieri to withdraw the brief he recently filed in the R.I. Supreme Court on same-sex marriage.

Arguing that it promotes “dangerous medical inaccuracies about pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted diseases” and “sends an inappropriate message to students from non-traditional households,” thirteen organizations today called on public high school principals and superintendents in the state to reject use of a questionable federally-funded “abstinence only until marriage” sex education program recently approved by the RI Department of Education. The private program at issue is run by Heritage Rhode Island (HRI). Among the diverse groups signing the letter to school officials were the RI Medical Society, the RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the RI Academy of Family Physicians, AIDS Project Rhode Island and Youth Pride.

The Tiverton School Committee and the Rhode Island ACLU have settled a suit the School Committee had filed seeking clarification of its obligations to Cheryl McCullough, a retired Tiverton School Department employee seeking to add Joyce Boivin, McCullough’s same-sex spouse, to her health insurance plan. The lawsuit was filed in September against McCullough, a Tiverton guidance counselor and health educator for 27 years, and her spouse, Joyce Boivin. They were married last year in Massachusetts, where they reside, following that state’s supreme court decision allowing same-sex couples to marry.  After being sued, McCullough contacted the ACLU for assistance.