Rhode Island Is Ready for Marriage Equality

Five states. That's how many places in the country currently recognize same-sex marriage -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire -- as well as the District of Columbia. California, as we all know, is a bit up in the air, pending the appeal process for the Proposition 8 court case.

But beyond these states, where are the next battlegrounds for marriage equality?

One of them is most definitely going to be Rhode Island, once a new Governor takes over after the November 2010 election. That means that in Rhode Island, marriage equality may be just a few mere months away.

And you know what? That couldn't be cooler with Rhode Island's citizenry. At least that's according to a new poll issued by the Rhode Island Marriage Coalition, along with the legal group Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), and the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. They note that in the past two years, support for same-sex marriage in Rhode Island has skyrocketed, to the point where a full 59 percent of the state's population favor legalizing marriage equality for LGBT people.

"As many of Rhode Island’s sister states have moved toward equality, the majority we see here is not all that surprising. Rhode Island voters clearly are ready for change," GLAD writes in their announcement that released the poll's results.

GLAD is quick to note that it's not just younger voters who are down with marriage equality. It's women. It's Catholics. It's Independents. In other words, support for marriage equality knows no gender, religion, or political party grounds. Rather, it cuts across all demographics and voting blocs, which means that in Rhode Island, support for same-sex marriage has not only reached a tipping point ... it's crested it.

Current Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri has been essentially the one road block to marriage equality in the state. Gov. Carcieri, who has regularly joined hands with official hate groups like Mass Resistance and other anti-gay groups like the National Organization for Marriage, has been one of the more anti-gay Governors in the country. He even vetoed a bill that would have allowed LGBT people to plan the funerals of their deceased partners.

But Carcieri is also term-limited, meaning that come 2011, he will no longer have the power to stop marriage equality legislation from moving forward in the state. And the leading candidates on the Democratic side, as well as a leading Independent candidate, have all expressed support for passing marriage equality legislation.

So it looks good. If I was a betting man, I'd put my money down on Rhode Island to be the next state in the country ready to join the marriage equality club.

Photo credit: taberandrew