Marriage Equality Rhode Island

Tricia Vedro
of Warren, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because

Robert Cannity
of Warwick, Rhode Island

I support marriage equality for all RI families because my husband and I had to go to Massachusetts to wed. Even though I was born in MA, I've lived in RI for the last 25 years. We've been together for 13 years and married for the last 3. We live openly in a caring and respectful neighborhood but my RI State Senator, William Walaska [a Democrat from District 30] does support this cause. When I asked him why, he stated that that "his constituents were not ready for that". This happened in my back yard while he was asking me to me to sign his petition for re-election! We need a change in state leadership if we cannot obtain marriage equality in RI within the next 12 months.

Lynn Granata
of Warwick, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because I think the time has finally come in America to live together and love each other as we would ourselves. Acceptance of those who differ from us is tantamount in achieving the goal of marriage equality. As a straight individual, I think that we as people and particularly Americans ought to live in harmony. It doesn't matter what gender 2 people who love one another are. Mostly what I hope to see is less discrimination, hatred, and animosity toward LGTB in general. In fact, I believe such hatred is malignant to our entire community, we must start now in teaching our children not to hate others with different lifestyles and sexual orientations.

nichole magnifico
of Warwick, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because the U.S. Constitution demands equality for all men and women.

krystal mcgrath
of warwick, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because I am a firm believer in equality for all and this oppression of our own friends and family is not right. Anyone is free to love, and anyone is free to be joined in union with the one they love. Everyone deserves to feel that acknowledged connection that, THAT person is their spouse and bound to them til death do they part. Everyone deserves to be able to say "why yes I am married, and yest his is my beautiful wife/ husband." We spend more time hurting our own people then we have spent in war with other countries. Everyday of our own peoples lives are filled with struggle, when it shouldn't be as emotionally complex. "i love you, you love me" THE END... there should be NO exceptions.

Nancy Phetteplace
of Warwick, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because

Desiree Villegas
of Warwick, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because love has no limits, no boundaries... it's a dream it's a fairytale, it should be everything and anything you want it to be once you find it.... and for us, it isn't. That isn't fair. I'm head over heels, stupid, slap happy in love with my girlfriend. I get butterflies in my stomach almost 2 years later, and someday, I'd like to do it right. Put a ring on her finger, and announce in front of everyone we know that I'll love her til the day I die, and have it be nationally recognized. She deserves that fairytale ending.

sarah vaughan
of washington, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because everyone should have the same rights.

Rich Rudert
of Westerly, Rhode Island

I believe in Marriage Equality because it is at its basic level a civil rights issue. It is the same issue that required blacks to use separate facilities, prevented blacks from marrying whites, and allowed sodomy laws in many states. It is a civil right also to allow one to marry the person of his or her choice, regardless of gender. There are many profound legal issues also associated with marriage equality. Why can some committed couples use the laws of inheritance and some cannot? Why can a loving partner be barred from a hospital room by hostile relatives? No arguments made by opponents of marriage equality have been able to withstand scrutiny by any court. There is no reason to delay bringing LGBT individuals into equality in marriage. Let RI join the rest of the New England states (but for Maine!) in this.

Ali Stefanik
of Woodstock, Connecticut

I believe in Marriage Equality because we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.