Mass. same-sex
marriages valid in R.I.,
Lynch rules
Providence Business
News (PBN.com) from the Web, February 21, 2007
PROVIDENCE – R.I. Attorney
General Patrick C. Lynch today issued an opinion saying that same-sex marriages
lawfully performed in Massachusetts will be recognized as valid in Rhode Island.
The opinion was issued in response to a Feb. 1 request by Jack R. Warner,
commissioner of the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education.
In researching his question, “the attorney general reviewed the legal
complexities of the federal Full, Faith and Credit Clause as well as principles
of Comity,” the opinion said. “That research determined that unless there
exists a public policy in this State that is so strong that it will require
Rhode Island to except same-sex marriages from the traditional respect and
recognition it has shown to a sister state’s laws since the Union’s creation,
Rhode Island will recognize such a marriage if it was valid in the state in
which it was performed.”
Specifically, Lynch said, he advised Warner that the Board of Governors should
comply with the requests of several employees who were so married, who asked
that it alter their personnel files to reflect their status as married couples.
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