Rhode Island
should recognize state employees' same-sex marriages that
are performed in neighboring Massachusetts and extend
benefits to their partners, the state's attorney
general said in an opinion released Wednesday.
Rhode Island
prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and
also extends benefits such as health insurance to domestic
partners of state employees, Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch
noted in the opinion, requested by a state department.
He said that with the absence of a law banning
same-sex marriage, there's no strong reason to deny
recognition to those marriages performed in
Massachusetts, the only state where such unions are
legal.
Lynch said the
advisory opinion, requested by the state Board of
Governors for Higher Education, was not binding and that the
board or other agencies could disregard it. ''It's
essentially guidance. It's my interpretation of the
law,'' he said.
Lynch's letter,
dated Tuesday and released Wednesday, was less equivocal.
''Rhode Island will recognize same-sex marriages lawfully
performed in Massachusetts as marriages in Rhode
Island,'' he wrote.
The board intends
to follow Lynch's opinion, spokesman Steve Maurano said
Wednesday. ''I think his letter is very clear,'' Maurano
said.
The board sought
the opinion when several gay employees requested that
their files be changed to reflect their marriages in
Massachusetts, Maurano said. Michele Granda, a staff
attorney for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders,
said she expected most government agencies in Rhode
Island will heed the legal advice from Lynch as the state's
top lawyer.
Rhode Island is
one of a few states that neither allow nor specifically
ban same-sex unions. Several legislative attempts to ban or
legalize same-sex marriages have failed there in
recent years. A Massachusetts superior court justice
decided last fall that Rhode Islanders are allowed to
marry in that state, the only place in the country where
same-sex marriage is allowed. Rhode Island courts,
however, are in no way bound by that decision. (AP)
