Rhode Island Governor –Elect Reaffirms Commitment To Equality And Rejects National Organization For Marriage Overture To Place Gay Marriage On Ballot; Anti-Gay NOM Throws Tantrum

Rhode Island Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee has rejected an overture by the National Organization for Marriage to allow a voter amendment be placed on the 2012 ballot affording the electorate the right to decide the issue of same sex marriage, the Province Journal reporting that NOM’s Rhode Island director Christopher Plante received a letter from Michael Trainor, a top aide to the governor, reiterating the position Chafee campaigned on, the letter in part reading “The governor elect feels that the issue should be addressed as soon as possible by the General Assembly, and does not believe that the question should be decoded by a ballot referendum.” The letter underlined Chafee’s belief that “Marriage equality is a basic right that should be extended to all Rhode Islander – a question not only of fairness and justice, but of economic development as well.” Tuesday, Plante said he was “surprised” by the governor’s commitment to equality “because “Mr. Trainor indicated that he thought that Governor-elect Chafee would sit down at the round table with all parties ... I left thinking that maybe we’ll get a roundtable. We’ll get ‘Marriage Equality’ ... We’ll get NOMRI to sit at the table and talk about how we are going to go forward on this ... But what he has done is rejected our position out of hand.” Late Tuesday, tellingly, a public relations firm released a statement from Plante, reading in part “It is clear that Governor-elect Chafee intends to put fringe issues and radical politics over saving Rhode Islander’s jobs and securing a prosperous future for our State (but) we are confident that the majority of Assembly-women and men know there are more important things to deal with and we will support their efforts to push for a referendum.”