All the local media is a-flutter about the possibility that marriage equality might pass in the General Assembly, our bicameral state legislature. Our Speaker of the House is a gay man, who really helped bring in civil unions two years ago. That is how Ray and I ended up getting a starring role in the media by being the first same-sex couple in RI to have a civil union ceremony. The goal of the original bill had been for full marriage rights, but realization hit that while that would likely pass in the House, it was guaranteed to fail in the Senate since the Senate President is very Catholic and dead set against same-sex marriage.

As a result, the Speaker opted to go for civil unions to at least lock the rights that are granted by marriage in RI even if it did not have the term. In RI, outside of a religious exemption, we get all the benefits of marriage that are granted on the state level.

Last year, the General Assembly was tied up with major issues like the economy and the pension funding problem so same-sex marriage was pushed aside. The Speaker promised to make same-sex marriage a major issue with this year's session though.

Well, it does look pretty positive. The bill has been presented in both houses of our legislature. About 2/3 of the House members signed on as sponsors so there is absolutely no doubt that it will pass the House. As with the last time this issue came up, the Senate is up in the air.

The Senate President has actually promised to allow the bill to come to a vote in the judicial committee, which would be required before it could come to the Senate floor for a vote by the whole Senate. She gets to appoint all the members. The only person she has appointed was the previous chairman, who is against same-sex marriage. What is interesting is that she hasn't appointed any of the other members, and she could sway the result of the committee vote by her appointments. About 1/3 of the senators voted to sponsor the bill when it was submitted in that house.

What is interesting this time is that the business community, particularly the tourism and service sectors, and the unions are really coming out in favor of it. The news sources are almost reporting it as a fait accompli. What is even more interesting is that many Republicans in RI are saying that it should pass. That would seem to be a good indicator ... at least I hope it is.

The current bill would automatically change all of the registered civil unions into marriages. If that happens, Ray and I can stop referring to each other as civil union spouses and start calling each other husbands! The expectation is that all of this will sort itself out by the end of this month or early February.

There is also a bill that has been submitted in the House that would push the issue to the voters in a referendum, but that does not seem to be being received positively at all. Few seem interested in putting the vote of a minority to a popular vote, particularly since the bill was submitted by a legislator who has repeatedly submitted bills that would establish marriage as only being between a man and a woman.

I hope to have some really positive news for you soon!