Portsmouth's own state senator Chuck Levesque is one of the sponsors (with Perry, Sosnowski, Pichardo, and Miller) of a Marriage Equality bill (pdf), set for a hearing with the judiciary committee this Thursday, Feb. 26, and if you believe, as I do, that this is a civil rights issue, now is the time for some support.

The nut of the bill is an extension of the right of civil marriage to all couples, regardless of gender, recognizing the interest of the state in supporting families and its duty to afford equal protection.

Civil marriage is a legal institution recognized by the state in order to promote stable relationships and to protect individuals who are in those relationships. The institution of marriage also provides important protections for those who are married and their families, including not only any children or other dependents they may have, but also members of their extended families.
— S0147, p.2, lines 8-12

The bill is also quite explicit in NOT infringing on the rights of religious traditions to define and enforce their own requirements. "No court or other state or local governmental body, entity, agency or commission shall compel, prevent, or interfere in any way with any religious institution's decisions about marriage eligibility within that particular faith's tradition." (page 2, lines 30-32)

The introduction of the bill has hit the radar of groups like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which is mounting a campaign encouraging followers to contact their senators and show up at the hearing. They have also created a radio spot — it's unclear how much it's running on local stations yet — but they're asking supporters for cash to support their buy. Go take a listen. Yeah. Ick.

Obviously, the folks at Marriage Equality Rhode Island (MERI) are planning a response, and they could use your help to buy air time. "We cannot depend upon funding from national partners for this effort, especially given such short notice," says a posting on their Web site. You can head over to their online donation form at donate.marriageequalityri.org.

If you can show up Thursday, room 313 at the rise of the Senate (around 5 pm, but you'll want to get there early), that would be super. And it can't hurt to let our senators hear from you, since they've probably been getting a fair amount of correspondence on this issue from the automated fax generator on the NOM site.

You can find the membership of the judiciary committee on the Assembly web site. (Or, here's a copy-and-pasteable list of their e-mail addresses: sen-blais@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-goodwin@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-jabour@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-levesque@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-lynch@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-maselli@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-mcburney@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-mccaffrey@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-metts@rilin.state.ri.us, sen-perry@rilin.state.ri.us)