Local Residents, Officials Weigh In On Civil Union

Although the state Senate passed a civil union bill on Wednesday, people in East Greenwich on both sides of the issue are unhappy with it. The action by the Senate comes after the state House passed the bill earlier this month. Governor Chafee said Wednesday he will sign it into law.

East Greenwich Rep. Bob Watson was a sponsor of the House bill on civil unions, and voted yes. Conversely, EG’s two senators, Dawson Hodgson and Glen Shibley, voted against the Senate plan yesterday, but for different reasons.

“I respect that people wanted to do something,” said Hodgson Thursday. But, “I have a problem with the separate but equal aspect of [the civil union bill.”

One aspect of the bill was particularly problematic for him: the Corvese amendment. That amendment provided what Hodgson said was “very robust protection” to religious institutions that would allow them to refuse to recognize civil unions.

Hodgson said he feared that under the civil union bill, religious-affliated hospitals could deny a same-sex partner access to his or her loved one because they were not married. “All of a sudden, at the most critical time of life, you are being excluded,” he said.

And, according to Hodgson, no one in favor of the bill contacted him. “The correspondence I received from both sides was unanimously opposed.”

Nonetheless, he said, “It was a difficult vote. In one sense I was reluctant to vote against a stepping stone to equality.” But ultimately, “I felt the the bill was so flawed that I couldn’t support it.”

Shibley, who could not be reached, does not support civil union or gay marriage.

Recent EGHS graduate Kyle Branin, who is gay, also opposes the bill.

“On the whole, I feel like the civil union bill is both a disappointment and a disrespect to the LGBT community in Rhode Island,” he said, referring to people who are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgendered. But, he said, he would have supported it as a step in the right direction except for the same religious protections Hodgson disliked.

“I couldn't begin to explain the pain it would cause me to be barred from seeing the person I loved because the hospital taking him in believed our union to be ‘not real.’ This is simply not acceptable,” he said.

For Rev. Lyle Mook, of Christ Church, the bill’s religious protections are absolutely critical.  

In an interview on Thursday, Mook referred to an incident where Catholic Charities had to pull out of Massachusetts because the state mandated that adoption agencies could not deny prospective parents if they were the same sex.

Mook also said that there seems to be less and less room for opposing points of view. “The goal seems to be to delegitimize those voices as being irrational.”

“It becomes a real strategy,” he said, quoting Joseph Overton's idea that ideas in the public sphere move through several defined steps: from unthinkable to radical to acceptible to sensible to popular to policy.

As for same sex marriage, Mook said he was opposed.

“The question has to do with marriage as an institution in society. Do we change what has been foundational - what has been the definition of marriage?”

For Branin, on the other hand, Rhode Island can and should do better.

“This bill isn't equality,” said Branin. “It's a concession, a political move that tries to avoid offending anybody too much, and in the process ends up offending just about everyone.”

Bob Watson could not be reached for this article.