Carcieri open to domestic partnership law

[ccharles000]

PROVIDENCE — Two days after vetoing a bill giving domestic partners the right to make funeral decisions for each other, a conciliatory Governor Carcieri told a gay-rights activist group he is open to supporting a domestic-partnership law that bestows many if not all of the rights of marriage, without the right to marry.

“Maybe it’s something we should consider,” said Carcieri, after meeting privately Thursday for more than an hour in his office with a half-dozen members of Queer Action of Rhode Island, a group that in the immediate aftermath of his veto had labeled him “a bigot.”

Among those attending was Mark Goldberg, the Providence East Sider whose five-week battle to claim the body of his partner of 17 years from the state morgue, had sparked the vetoed legislation.

Citing as a possible model the “everything but marriage” referendum that won approval in the state of Washington earlier this month, Carcieri said: “I don’t know enough, yet. All I am saying is I understand the circumstances. I understand the difficulties” that can arise for same-sex couples and others — such as widows living with widowers, and widows with other widows — outside the legal framework of a traditional marriage.

http://www.projo.com/generalassembly/carcieri_gay_meeting_11-13-09_FVGEEAI_v23.3b3ffb6.html

[meegbear]

1. Carcieri should drive up Route 95 North into Massachusetts ...

and see the state to the north and east of him is still intact with full marriage rights.

[brendan120678]

2. He would have to drive...

West on I-95 South to see that in Connecticut.

[Toasterlad]

3. Maybe Carcieri Should Consider Fucking Off and Dying.

I could support that plan.

[donco6]

5. Me too.

Any chance of a vote on that?

[mitchtv]

4. I think that's

A LIE!