The Slippery Slope to Dignity

Seeking to protect "traditional marriage" from "incremental erosion," Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri (R) has vetoed a law which would have allowed same-sex partners to provide for the burial of their loved ones. Governor Carcieri also said that the one year minimum requirement for the domestic partnership isn't long enough to form a "lasting bond", and that domestic partnership status is impossible to verify given it has no official status in Rhode Island (the provision of which the governor also opposes).

The legislation was prompted by one of the more heart-wrenching personal stories to emerge from the same-sex marriage debate.

At a hearing this year on one of the stalled bills to allow same-sex marriage, Mark S. Goldberg told a Senate committee about his months-long battle last fall to persuade state authorities to release to him the body of his partner of 17 years, Ron Hanby, so he could grant Hanby's wish for cremation -- only to have that request rejected because "we were not legally married or blood relatives."

Goldberg said he tried to show the police and the state medical examiner's office "our wills, living wills, power of attorney and marriage certificate" from Connecticut, but "no one was willing to see these documents."

He said he was told the medical examiner's office was required to conduct a two-week search for next of kin, but the medical examiner's office waited a full week before placing the required ad in a newspaper. And then when no one responded, he said, they "waited another week" to notify another state agency of an unclaimed body.

After four weeks, he said, a Department of Human Services employee "took pity on me and my plight ... reviewed our documentation and was able to get all parties concerned to release Ron's body to me," but then the cremation society refused to cremate Ron's body.

"On the same day, I contacted the Massachusetts Cremation Society and they were more than willing to work with me and cremate Ron's body," and so, "on November 6, 2008, I was able to finally pick up Ron's remains and put this tragedy to rest."

Well, good thing we nipped that in the bud. And what a testament to the power of the "gays aren't unequal, they can contract around the benefits of marriage" argument!

Claiborne Pell (1918-2009)

Former Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell (D), author of the famous college loan program that bears his name, died last night at age 90. A scion of one of New England's most prominent political families, Pell was nevertheless one of America's great advocates for persons of all backgrounds, classes, races, and orientations. He was a model for the best kind of Senator, and he will be missed.

Lincoln Chafee Now an Independent

Former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island has left the GOP and is now a registered independent.

There isn't any major political angle to this. Chafee was the ultimate RINO, not even voting for President Bush in the 2004 elections. It was well known that he only was maintaining his GOP membership out of respect for his father, one of the great Rockefeller Republicans, and had he pulled a Jeffords at any time during his tenure in the Senate, he easily would have kept his seat. I don't think this is a precursor to a political comeback, either; while Chafee did not dislike being in the Senate, it never really was his passion, and I don't think he has any desire to engage in another tough war with current Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (who now has the advantage of incumbency in uber-blue RI).

Still, I thought it was interesting that he finally made the jump. I wonder what finally pushed him over the edge?

Incest and Sinai

Did you know Rhode Island exempts Jews from its law barring Uncle-Niece incest and marriages? This is to allow Jews to fulfill certain commandments laid out in Leviticus. While Jews no longer condone Uncle-Niece incest (centuries-old Talmudic interpretation has essentially nullified the doctrine entirely), it does kind of give lie to cheap talk about "a code of conduct stretching back to Sinai" being against incest. There's a weird tendency among some authors to assume that "bad things" are exactly interchangable with "things the Bible condemns." It's not true, and often times it leads to really sloppy writing. Not to mention, an atrophy of critical thinking on our part as to why we think Uncle-Niece incest is wrong. As this case demonstrates, always deferring to our ancestry can lead to some dangerous and unforeseen commitments.

The Rhode Island law isn't exactly an anomaly, either, though its the only one to single out Jews. Several other states have exceptions to Uncle-Niece incest and marriage laws (Minnesota and Colorado permit it for "aboriginal cultures"), and Oregon doesn't bar Uncle-Niece incest at all (though it does not recognize marriages). I suspect most of these laws are relics of some form--I doubt any would pass today. It's just an interesting legal and historical note that I never knew.

It certainly would make for an interesting case example for my paper on Jews and American Church/State relations, though.