Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri
has vetoed a bill that would have given gay couples the same rights
to plan the funerals of their late partners as married couples, the
AP reported.
Carcieri, a Republican, said he
rejected the legislation because it would erode heterosexual
marriage.
“If the General Assembly believes it
would like to address the issue of domestic partnership, it should
place the issue on the ballot and let the people of the State of
Rhode Island decide,” the governor said in a letter to lawmakers.
Carcieri, who will be term-limited out
of office next year, remains a major obstacle to passing a gay
marriage bill in Rhode Island, which lawmakers have considered for
the last 12 years. The governor also backs an effort to place a gay
marriage ban in the Rhode Island Constitution. And in the spring, he
and his wife, Sue, joined the state's newly minted chapter of the
National Organization for Marriage, the nation's most vociferous
opponent of gay marriage.
Last month, he refused a request by gay
rights group Queer Action Rhode Island to cancel a scheduled
appearance before the anti-gay group Massachusetts Family Institute
(MFI) at its 18th Annual Fundraising Banquet. However,
the governor agreed to meet with gay rights activists in early
November. That meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 12.
Susan Heroux, a member of Queer Action
Rhode Island, said the meeting will be “very important.”
“I don't know what his interaction is
with gay people, frankly,” she said in a statement. “And we
don't expect to change his views. But we do hope that by talking to
him about our daily lives, he can understand that this is not just
ideology.”
The bill's sponsors said Wednesday they
would seek to override the governor's veto in the Democratically-led
Legislature.