Civil Rights: RI says OK to MA

Patrick C. Lynch, Rhode Island's attorney general, said that ALL marriages performed in Massachusetts should be recognized by the state of Rhode Island. Not that ground breaking you say since states have always recognized marriages performed in other states as valid. Except he's included same sex marriages. (If you are reading this Mike Cox, see that not all state attorney generals are homophobic jerks, bent on overcompensating for their small last name.) Though the Federal Marriage Amendment prohibiting same sex marriage in the US never quite passed, it's important to remember that Congress did codify discrimination into federal law when it passed, Defense of Marriage Act which defines marriage as a legal union of one man and one woman for the purpose of interpreting federal law. This was in response to Hawaii scare when lots of states were worried they were going to be forced to recognized same sex unions in Hawaii.

“This is about Rhode Island citizens who entered into a valid, legally recognized same-sex marriage and returned here to live and work,” Mr. Lynch, a Democrat, said in an interview. “There is no way, no law, no constitutional provision and, in my estimation, no right to allow the denial of basic human rights.”