Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox
has said he will call a vote next year on a bill which would legalize
gay marriage in the state.
“I'm calling the vote,” Fox, an
openly gay Democrat, said Friday during taping of WPRI's Newsmakers.
The program is scheduled to air
on Sunday.
“It's
one of those issues that I need to come back, we need to address, and
I intend if I'm elected speaker to address it early.”
“It's
one of the main reasons I'm coming back. There's unfinished
business.”
The
General Assembly ended its 2012 session without taking up debate on
bills related to gay marriage. One such bill sought to legalize
marriage equality.
Fox
has come under heavy criticism from gay marriage advocates for
abandoning efforts last year to approve a marriage equality bill in
favor of civil unions. Fox explained at the time that the marriage
bill was doomed in the Senate because President Teresa Paiva Weed and
other top Democrats remained opposed.
(Related:
Cee
Lo Green parody knocks Gordon Fox for reversing on gay marriage.)
Governor
Lincoln Chafee signed civil unions into law but added that he
supports equal marriage rights for gay couples.
“I
never believed civil unions was a replacement for full marriage
equality,” Fox said on the program.
He
added that he is prepared to call the vote because “we have the
backstop [of civil unions] now.”